6:58pm: Merrifield’s escalators are based on the number of days he spends on the injured list, MLBTR has learned. So long as he spends fewer than 110 days on the IL this year, he’ll receive the full $6.75MM in 2023.
6:19pm: The Royals announced this evening they’ve agreed to a restructured contract with infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield. The club has preemptively exercised his 2023 team option, and the parties have added a mutual option covering the 2024 season. Merrifield is represented by Warner Sports Management.
Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports the financial breakdown of the deal (on Twitter). Merrifield will make $7MM in 2022 and $2.75MM in 2023 (with an additional $4MM in possible escalators). The deal also contains an $18MM mutual option for 2024 that contains a $500K buyout.
It’s an atypical tack for a team to take, but the Royals and Merrifield have had a very productive 12-year relationship. The Kansas City organization is generally regarded as one of the more loyal in the sport, and the Royals front office was steadfast about keeping Merrifield even as they rebuilt in recent seasons. There’s little question club brass is fond of the University of South Carolina product, and that affinity presumably contributed to their decision to exercise his 2023 option a year early.
Of course, there was never much doubt it’d be picked up. Kansas City signed Merrifield to a four-year extension that guaranteed him $16.25MM back in January 2019. That was a very affordable deal reflecting his status as a late bloomer, as Merrifield didn’t break camp on an Opening Day roster until 2017 — his age-28 campaign. With no path to free agency until his mid-30s, Merrifield elected to lock in some guaranteed earnings, while the club avoided his salaries escalating especially high via arbitration.
Under the terms of his previous contract, which had been front-loaded, Merrifield had been slated to make $3.25MM this year with a $7MM club option that would’ve escalated to $11MM for 2023 had he avoided a lengthy IL stint. As Mark Feinsand of MLB.com points out (on Twitter), the renegotiation more evenly distributes the team’s commitments over the next two years, paying Merrifield more up-front while clearing some payroll space next season.
Kansas City’s payroll jumps to around $97MM, in the estimation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. The team’s 2023 commitments dip to approximately $36MM. Kansas City isn’t punting on the 2022 campaign, but they’re a bit of a longshot competitor in the AL Central. With young players like Bobby Witt Jr., Nick Pratto and MJ Melendez set to arrive this year, the 2023 season and beyond should be firm win-now seasons. The front office will have a bit more money with which to work next offseason, while Merrifield is no doubt happy for the immediate raise (and the insurance that preemptively exercising the option guarantees in the event of a catastrophic injury this year).
Cue 31 comments from people who’ve never watched a Royals game in their life saying the Royals should’ve traded Merrifield already.
Royals should have traded Merrifield already!
1st
There’s no way 31 people care whether the Royals traded Merrifield or not.
Fair point.
Really want to see the terms because paying Merrifield more in his age 34 season to potentially pay him even more in his age 35 season when DM is on record in the last two weeks saying that Lopez is the best 2B in the league and Witt is now up makes little sense. Merrifield just isn’t a valuable OF, but he’s ok at 2B.
I don’t like this take
Lopez might be a better defensive 2B but his offense is not on par with Merrifield. None of it really matters regardless as Mondesi will hit the IL fairly quickly allowing Lopez to play SS.
Which means WHIT will move back to second and then somebody such as olivaries will play RF
$10m in guarantees, maxing out at $32m over 3 years if the mutual option is exercised (they almost never are) and he hits every escalator in the contract. Not even close to an overpay even if he is 35 when it’s all said and done. Plus it adds payroll flexibility in 2023 when we might very well be a piece or two away from being legit good. Love this deal and love Whit.
What does Whit get if he’s on the open market right now. 3 / $45m?
An above average bat and Gold Glove finalist at 2B is a little better than OK.
I’ve wanted this guy on the Yankees for a few years now. He would help any team really
This is why players love playing for Kansas City. They take care of players who contribute to the team and the community. Look what they did for their catcher last year. They signed Perez to a huge 4 year extension after coming off a significant injury. A lot of people balked at that deal, but Perez more than earned his new contract after his monster 2021 season.
“and the community” what does that mean, exactly? I’ve never understood when players’ contracts or commitments include charitable contributions- like a guy signs for, say, 8 years/$120M and they mention he will contribute $2M over the lifetime of the deal to the teams’ charitable organization. Why?
I feel like players and teams negotiate deals where it’s like, they tack on $500k a year or structure the deal so that the player makes an additional $1M a year after taxes just in order to give that money away.
So like, a player and a team make a deal where the player’s goal is to make $7M a year after taxes, but they add money to the deal so that it’s $7.5M or $8M a year after taxes and that extra money is given away to charity.
I assume the tax deduction from the charitable contributions is worth it to the player and the organization’s bottom line and because it’s good optics?
I’m *not* against charity, but I always find it weird how some players claim to not care about money or seem to emphasize their charitable efforts…but they still pocket 90-95% of their income for personal use and lifestyle, not for charitable efforts.
I know it’s all about the tax write off’s and the public relations benefits- but even so.
It really started when Gil Meche retired early and gave back $12M. The Royals also stood by Greinke and Duffy during their tough times.
Whit is a top 30 position player right now. Dodger fans know the least about Baseball as a league out of any fan group. Congrats Yankee fans, you’ve been promoted.
non sequitur of the day!
Whit is not a top 30 position player, wake up.
I’m a Whit fan but no way is he a top 30 player. That’s ridiculous.
Just you saying it’s ridiculous doesnt make it ridiculous.
Well… mlb.com puts him at #96 on the list of the top 100 players.
I’ll let you go through and take the pitchers out but he’s still not close to the top 30.
Ridiculous.
This is a smart move by the Royals, because if he’s still a quality player next year, he’s very cheap, and could be flipped for a premium to a contending team nearing the CBT level.
That’s not how the Royals operate. You can agree with it or not, but Dayton Moore will not trade Whit Merrifield.
He probably would have been paid if he’d been traded back when MLBTR first started on that wagon years ago.
I don’t know how you could NOT like what the Royals are doing. No qualms about promoting Whit, locking up everybody’s favorite at a reasonable rate, bringing back Zack. You’d rather pay full price tickets for a team that’s “playing for the future” with players that have no future?”????
Man. the Lords of the Realm have really accomplished something with their thought distortions. They sold you hamburger, charged you for steak, and laughed all the way to the bank.
I think Whit needs a better agent.
I read through those figures several times to make sure I didn’t misunderstand anything. If you ask me he got hosed. Yeah, he gets a raise for 2022, but he’s still way below market value. Makes even less next year, and when was the last time a mutual option was picked up by both sides? I get that there are a lot of intangibles at work here, but there are far lesser players in the league making far more money. I could kinda understand if the $18M for ‘24 was guaranteed, but that payday is a mirage at best. If his level of production remains steady he could get 2/35 or 3/55 easily elsewhere after next year.
Honestly agree. When I first saw the mutual option, Dayton almost always uses those with a large buyout as basically fam option to defer money to the next year, but the buyout is only $500k.
I don’t view Whit as a top 30 talent. What I do view him as is essentially the heir apparent to Ben Zobrist in the MLB.
While he probably will never reach Zobrist’s peak levels of performance they are both late bloomers that are/were invaluable depth pieces to their teams. I hope he gets a few playoff opportunities before all is said and done.
I can’t think of 30 guys who can be a 4-win player while playing average offense and above average defense in the middle IF or OF.
I don’t understand why teams don’t realize that defense is the most important part of the game right now. The reason the Rays are successful isn’t because of great bats and pitching. It’s depth and defense.
Pretty much the least that Royals head Dayton Moore owed Whit. According to Fangraphs, Whit – who thus far has banked a little over 13 million dollars in lifetime earnings from baseball – has been “worth” over 136 million dollars to the Royals. Drop in the bucket. Not to say Whit shouldn’t be grateful, but, let’s have some perspective here.
Whit gave all of his productive years to the Royals at a significant discount. Even worse for Merrifield realizing that the first season he was going to make any substantial money was 2020, but the year of Covid meant he lost over 60% of his pay. Unfortunately, he arrived just after the Royals’ once-in-a-generation run of being good ended. Will he be around for the next run?
It’s a short-term commitment for the Royals, basically two years, so his declining offensive production over the last three years to being a below-average hitter last season shouldn’t be too concerning as he can still bring value in other ways as long as the legs and defense hold up. Certainly a much better deal for the Royals than the Dozier contract.
So before this restructuring, B-R showed he was owed $10M in 2023. So this is basically a redistribution of what they were going to end up paying him anyway over the next two years, with an extra $500K thrown in for the mutual option that likely never gets triggered? Do mutual options ever get taken by both sides?
That injury list clause is laughable. He has played every single game the past 3 seasons and 97% of all team games the last 5 seasons. You can start that countdown on when he’ll be dealt to a legit first division club.
I’m beginning to wonder if even half the posters here read the article before gracing us
Mercy