Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette says the team plans to increase its payroll next season, Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports. Duquette notes that he still needs to meet with team ownership to discuss the payroll, but he expresses confidence that it will rise.
“The important thing for our fans to know is that we’ve increased our payroll over the last couple years,” says Duquette. “I expect that we’ll be able to increase our payroll because the fans have responded to our team the last couple of years.”
The Orioles will have to deal with arbitration raises for a number of key players, as well as options for Wei-Yin Chen and Darren O’Day. They are likely to buy out their end of Nick Markakis’ $17MM mutual option, but they’d like to retain him, Encina writes.
Nelson Cruz, Andrew Miller and Delmon Young will be free agents. The Orioles will likely extend Cruz a qualifying offer, and Cruz has said he would like to stay in Baltimore, but Duquette cautions that it will be tricky to keep him. “You can tell just by watching him, he’s the leader of the ballclub,” says Duquette. “Having said that, he came here to have a platform year to get himself re-established to get him a long-term deal and that’s something we will have to consider.”
As Encina points out, the Orioles had an Opening Day payroll of over $107MM last year, then increased it in-season by adding Miller, Alejandro De Aza, Nick Hundley (whose 2015 option they’ll likely decline) and others. Keeping most of their existing talent (including Markakis) will likely force them to go higher than that $107MM figure. They’ve already agreed to an extension with shortstop J.J. Hardy that will pay him $11.5MM in 2015, and Adam Jones and Ubaldo Jimenez will make even more. Chris Davis, who made $10.35MM in 2014, will top the Orioles’ long list of arbitration-eligible players, which also includes Matt Wieters, Bud Norris, Steve Pearce, Tommy Hunter, Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, Miguel Gonzalez, Zach Britton and De Aza.
Wow. That’s a LONG list of arb players who mostly had fantastic years. They’re gonna pay something fierce. I doubt “add payroll” means any new players, especially if they re-sign Cruz.
It probably isn’t that bad. Wieters and Davis didn’t have good years. Gonzalez didn’t make much and still won’t. And I doubt they keep all of those players. Matusz seems like a lock to NT. I could see them trading one of Norris or Chen. If they sign Markakis I doubt they keep De Aza, and vice versa. So while it should increase the payroll, it shouldn’t be as bad as the list seems.
They already had to defer money to JJ Hardy, which isn’t a good sign
Why? Money today is worth more than money tomorrow. Getting a player to defer money benefits the club.
Wieters was off to a fantastic start before he got hurt. Davis had a bad year, but players never get pay cuts in arbitration. There is no way they would pick up Chen’s option and then trade him. There is no way they would trade Norris without knowing Bundy was 100% to start the year. They will definitely keep De Aza even if they do sign Markakis.
Not to pick on you, but it seems like Orioles fans love to mention how hot Wieters was this season before he got hurt. They mention it so much it seems like an inside joke. He played in 26 BABIP fueled games for heaven’s sake. He’s a good catcher and would have made a difference throughout the season, but it seems pretty irrelevent to bring up a month’s worth of successful games as if that was a sign he was going to have a productive year.
That’s true but the comment is correct. No one gets pay cuts in arbitration. Davis and Wieters will both get raises.
But it’s not going to be that much, or nothing the club can’t live with. A guy like Davis will cost 10 to 12 million.
Great great point. Wieters will turn 30 shortly after his next contract kicks in, plus his greatest attribute, his arm, may be a question mark after the surgery. I’d be very very careful.
Yeah they keep Norris. Even if Bundy is healthy he’s not ready to throw 150 innings. He needs to build from the ground up. Part of that is getting his performance in order. Part of it is working his inning count up. He still may be great but the kid needs to build up his workload before he can be counted on as a starter for the Orioles. Best case scenario is he becomes a strong bullpen piece next year but I still think they would rather keep him stretched out as a starter.
Huh? Gonzalez threw in 160 innings at 3.45 ERA at a hitting-friendly park, and 119 ERA+. He’s gonna get paid. If the O’s don’t want him I’m sure they’ll find about 20 takers for his services.
Gonzalez basically made league minimum this year. He will have a jump in pay, but I don’t think the Orioles are too worried about him becoming too expensive next year. He’s not going from 500k to 7 million dollars.
I read somewhere they’re expecting the payroll to be around $150 million
From 107 million?!?!?!?! There’s no way.
I’d love to keep Miller. Unfortunately, someone will want to make him a closer and pay him closer money. I can see him easily getting a 3 or 4 year deal for AAV $10MM or more. That won’t happen in Baltimore, sad to say.
I agree plus I’m not a fan of giving a reliever that kind of money.
That “somebody” is the Boston Red Sox.
No. Red Sox don’t pony up that kind of money for relief pitchers. Company policy.
Miller will be the Red Sox closer. Uehara out. Book it.
Red Sox “rules” are made to be broken.
Not that rule, book it. 3/21 maybe but 10 million a year for anything longer than a year ain’t happening.
*Detroit Tigers
Duquette has done an excellent job since coming to Baltimore. He’ll get it all figured out.
They should have done more during the trade deadline but didn’t and people thought they didn’t need too.Glad they got swept.
The Royals risked prospects and spent money and the Orioles didn’t do that.
Who did the Royals get at the trade deadline? Honest question.
“The Royals risked prospects and spent money and the Orioles didn’t do that.”
In July, the Royals acquired reliever Jason Frasor while the Orioles acquired reliever Andrew Miller. In August, the Royals acquired outfielder Josh Willingham while the Orioles acquired outfielder Alejandro De Aza. Where exactly did the Royals spend money and risk prospects that the Orioles didn’t do?
The Orioles gave up Eduardo Rodriguez for Andrew Miller, who now ranks as one of the top prospects in the Red Sox organization, and is certainly a more highly touted player than any given up by the Royals at the trade deadline.
Rodriguez is not that good. He’s probably #4 or 5 among Red Sox pitcher prospects. He had a fantastic 6 starts for Boston’s AA team, but had been pretty hittable before that. Still very young, so who knows, but that was a terrific deal for the O’s.
No way, I’ve seen legitimate prospect evaluators suggest he could be the #1 pitching prospect in our system. There are three pitchers at the top of our system that you really can’t go wrong with (Owens, Rodriguez, and Barnes; maybe four depending on how you feel about Brian Johnson after the year he had).
I think trading Reodriguez for Miller was a bad trade. Miller pitched well for them, but I don’t think he really made a difference one way or another.
The A’s traded for Lester and Samardzija and couldn’t get passed the wild card game. The Tigers traded for Price and got swept by the O’s.
What the O’s did or didn’t do at the deadline has nothing to do with how far they got in the postseason. The Royals were a combination of really hot, playing good ball, and lucky.
Oh, and the Royals did pretty much the same thing at the deadline that the O’s did (less really). The O’s got Miller who was a beast and the Royals added a couple guys who had way less impact.
So pretty much what I’m trying to say is your post makes no sense.
What should the O’s have done that would have made a difference?
…or its just good luck that Royals are hot at the right time.
Translation: Your ticket prices are going up.
Honestly, let Cruz sign elsewhere. He’s going to get paid for what he did this year which was a career year, and is going to be 35 at the midpoint of next season. Albeit I do think he will still be a productive player but in reality he is not going to repeat the year he had in ’14. He’s also an unimpressive defender, (while not terrible) but it isn’t going to get any better from here on out. If he was going to get paid for what he’s going to become, likely a solid hitter, but not exceptional; DHing more and more, then I’d say resign him. It’s just thats not how it works.
Plenty of options for the O’s, including some attractive ones lingering in the minors. We’ll probably see a number of the trade moves head out; Miller is especially likely to go where the money will be for him. Hopefully Chris Davis can slow things down and have a better 2015. Outside of Davis, the infield is pretty locked down for a couple of seasons. We just need to get some speed.
Big question with the Wieters’ deal is how far along can Caleb Joseph come before a major decision has to be made? If his bat can get more consistent, Wieters might be a trade prospect.
With the deeper run to the ALCS, and having a great manager in Buck, the Orioles might be in the hunt for a number of major free agents. 2015 could see a different rotation and some batters, but perhaps some great new faces. In this division, you got to spend money to stay competitive. Duquette has the plan, he just needs the money.
Depends on what cheapskate Angelos decides to do.. and of course, the MASN deal as well. I imagine he’s prepared to slash payroll if he gets an unfavorable ruling on the MASN TV money.
if payroll is really that tight i wonder what the chances are the orioles decline to offer Chris Davis arbitration, i find it hard to imagine a team would match whatever raise he would likely receive through arbitration as a free agent
With Chris everyone was glamouring to extend him after his big year and cut him after his awful one. He’ll be back, Buck loves him.