12/21/24
April 06, 2015
LA Dodgers set MLB payroll record.:
$277,000,000 for this season.
That is a lot of money. Here is a complete list of opening day payrolls.
Relative to how they are expected to perform, looks like the Pirates are especially good bang-for-the-buck. Cards, Cubs, and Seattle (assuming you buy into the Cubs and Mariners hype) as well.
posted by holden at 11:34 AM on April 06, 2015
Unnecessary trivia time!
The combined salaries of the 2014 NL All-Star team was LESS than that for the LA Dodgers in 2015.
Salaries in $millions, rounded to 3rd decimal.
Starters:
Lucroy 2.000
Goldschmidt 1.100
Utley 15.000
Ramirez 16.000
Tulowitzki 16.000
Gomez 7.000
McCutchen 7.250
Puig 3.714
Bench/Pitchers:
Alvarez 0.525
Blackmon 0.501
Baumgarner 3.750
Carpenter 1.000
Castro 5.000
Chapman 5.000
Clippard 5.875
Cueto 10.000
Frazier 0.600
Freeman 5.125
Gordon 0.515
Greinke 26.000
Harrison 0.513
Hudson 11.000
Kershaw 4.000
Kimbrel 7.000
Mesoraco 0.525
Molina 15.000
Montero 10.000
Murphy 5.700
Neshek 1.000
Pence 16.000
Rizzo 1.250
Rodriguez 3.250
Ross 1.980
Samardzija 5.345
Simon 1.500
Stanton 6.500
Street 7.000
Teheran 0.800
Wainwright 19.500
Watson 0.519
Zimmerman 7.500
Total: 257.837
posted by grum@work at 11:34 AM on April 06, 2015
Someone has also pointed out that this does not include the two Cuban players they have signed.
Hector Olivera (6 years, $62.5million) was signed in the last couple of weeks, while fellow teammate Alexander Guerrero (7 years, $32million) was signed last year.
Neither of them will see time in the majors this year unless the current second baseman (Howie Kendrick, $9.5million in his final year under contract) is injured/implodes, as they are both listed at that position.
Move them to shortstop? Sorry, but that position is also taken (Jimmy Rollin, $11million, final year of contract).
So they have approximately $12.25million in contracts for their Cuban signings just wallowing in AAA.
posted by grum@work at 12:39 PM on April 06, 2015
Alex Guerrero is on the 25 man roster. IIRC he has a provision in his contract that requires him to be on the MLB roster this season.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 12:14 AM on April 07, 2015
Neither of them will see time in the majors this year unless the current second baseman (Howie Kendrick, $9.5million in his final year under contract) is injured/implodes, as they are both listed at that position.
Heck, the Dodgers might've bought one year of Hector Olivera recovering from Tommy John surgery...which is especially nuts considering he's already 29.
With Rollins at short and Uribe at third, the left side of the Dodgers' infield is playing chicken with father time (both on injury and effectiveness.) If Guerrero's flexible enough to play SS and 3B in addition to 2B, I don't think it'd be totally unreasonable to expect 60 starts even without injury subbing out for those positions. They're stuck with him regardless of his play because of his contract structure.
It's weird to see all that $$ and see them start the season with four healthy starters (including paper mache Brett Anderson and one-healthy-season Brandon McCarthy) and no established closer who's healthy. It's also not unreasonable to expect that Andre Ethier and/or Darwin Barney/Guerrero get major playing time because a guy who gets hurt regularly got hurt.
posted by dfleming at 10:48 AM on April 07, 2015
The Dodgers' payroll, up from $234 million at the start of last season, includes $43.8 million for 2015 to cover the costs of Brian Wilson and Dustin McGowan, who were released; Matt Kemp, Dan Haren and Dee Gordon, who were traded; and Chad Billingsley, who was owed a buyout when his option was declined.