2012 Projected Opening Day Payroll

As promised, this is what we are looking at for this years opening day payroll. A few notes to begin with.

First, this is just a projection of what I think the 25 man roster will look like. However, since we are talking about payroll, there is no difference if one league minimum contract player makes it vs another. So, don't look too much into the names.

Second, as of right now, I'm assuming that Slowey will not make the club. This is based on recent moves for even more pitching depth. And this is also assuming that his contract is in fact non-guaranteed. It's a possibility that he does make it though.

Third, this is all based on what we have now. So, obviously, there is a lot that can change.

Fourth, these numbers come from Cots contracts. So, my numbers here are only as accurate as they are reported. Link is here.

Fifth, for pre-arbitration players, I'm just assigning them a generic .42 million dollars on their contract. It will vary from player to player.

Lastly the category of "other" is a fudge factor that includes signing and performance bonuses which I can't account for or don't have any knowledge of. This just allows me to be somewhat conservative.

So, we are looking at an opening day payroll somewhere between 72 and 75 million depending on where certain pieces fall. This will end up being the lowest ODP since 2008, when we went into the season with 68.655 according to Cots. This is a bit shock as we expected the budget to be over 80 million at the start of this off-season. We have heard both from Troy Renck and Dan O'Dowd that the team is done with major free agent signings. So, it would seem that this is where payroll will end up.

What does this mean? Well, I'm not sure. Perhaps revenue is a lot less robust then what we thought it was. Perhaps they are saving for next year and for the draft. Or perhaps the front office have been preforming a bit of mis-direction and will be signing some free agents as we go forward. There are still some players out there who would help significantly bolster the team. So, we will have to see.