A total of $972MM was spent on Major League free agent contracts this offseason, led by the Red Sox at $137MM. The Marlins are on bottom, with no big league free agent contracts signed. Each team spent about $32MM on average. Check out the list below, and contact us if you notice any errors.
- Red Sox – $137,030,000
- Cardinals – $129,450,000
- Mets – $75,350,000
- Brewers – $55,650,000
- Angels – $52,000,000
- Mariners – $51,325,000
- Braves – $41,350,000
- Reds – $37,070,000
- Giants – $34,750,000
- Phillies – $30,850,000
- Astros – $29,900,000
- Nationals – $29,900,000
- Cubs – $25,800,000
- Tigers – $23,950,000
- Orioles – $23,900,000
- Rangers – $22,500,000
- Athletics – $20,900,000
- Blue Jays – $20,500,000
- Yankees – $19,800,000
- Diamondbacks – $19,100,000
- Royals – $18,600,000
- Twins – $14,400,000
- Rockies – $13,100,000
- Dodgers – $11,500,000
- Padres – $8,675,000
- White Sox – $8,375,000
- Pirates – $8,125,000
- Rays – $5,300,000
- Indians – $2,850,000
- Marlins – $0
Man the Red Sox really threw a lot of money into free agents. Didn’t really realize it until I saw them at the top and then thought about all of the guys they signed. Beltre, Lackey, Cameron, Scutaro. Granted most of that sum is taken up by the hefty sum of Lackey’s 82.5 mil, but still.
am i the only one shocked to see that the rockies actually spent more than the dodgers?
When you consider all the rumors about the McCourts I’m almost surprised the Dodgers are as high as they are…
Half of the money the O’s spent went to Gonzalez and then Atkins.
And all but $9MM the Cardinals spent went to Holliday…
Yeah, that’s pretty nuts right? I really don’t like the Holliday contract for the Cards, and I think they will grow to regret it within a couple years.
And I believe all that money went to Brad Penny. Ridiculous, right?
And all but around $6MM the Reds spent went to Aroldis Chapman. Both could be good investments for the future. I guess time will tell
The Jays spent $20 million? Hmmm… let’s see… 40 pitchers at half-a-million a piece? Yup, the math checks out.
this list should be posted in terms of how much they spent in new salary for this year. not in total. that skews everything.
who is the highspender, a team signing 1 player for 1 year at 10 mil or a team signing a player to a 3 yr 12 mil contract.
They can’t do that, otherwise they can’t throw out that stat that the Yankees spend 400 plus million last year, even though that money was spread across many years of contracts.
ha!
I mean, I guess when you have 9 players with eight figure contracts- you are going to have some off years. I expect the Yanks to be back on top of that list next year with a new OF and a SP or two. Plus they’ll have to re-up Rivera and Jeter.
I think the teams that will benefit from their signings the most will be the teams who didn’t spend much at all.
For example, I think the Marlins will be one of the best teams in Baseball this season.
Maybe, but it’s not right. They (the Marlins) benefit from revenue sharing yet put that money in their pockets instead of investing in the team. MLB had to intervene it was so obvious in fact.
Yeah. But they still win. I think the union should have made the Padres spend more.
Isn’t it odd that MLB ordered Florida to start raising their payroll, and how much do they spend on free agents this off season? Yup that’s right. Zilch.
LOL the Marlins spent $0 this winter wow.
Talk about being cheap
Incorrect. They simply didn’t spend any money on free agents.
Yeah, they signed Josh Johnson to a suspiciously affordable extension. My guess is, he was signed to take the pressure off the organization and the Marlins trade him sometime after ’10 before his contract becomes out of the Marlins payroll range
Oh, there’s zero question that the Marlins’ main motive for locking JJ up was to get the MLBPA off their case. Hell, with all that newfound cost certainty, Loria can afford to buy the whole team diamond-studded chains!
Is this TOTAL Contract spending or just the money owed for 2010. I suspect it’s total contract spending which is sort of a lagging indicator of offseason dollars spent. I’d rather see a list of free agent spending attributed to 2010 payroll. That would be interesting to me.
It’s obviously the total
Yeah, it’s the total.
If you ever get confused, just look at if any of the teams signed a big time player.
For example, the Cardinals’s spending is 95% from Holliday.
I agree with you that the Sox should be spending some money to improve their team. I think the Lackey contract was largely unnecessary however. Lackey isn’t an ace, well at least not in my opinion. He’s a good pitcher who would fit well with any club, just not for 82 million dollars. Even with injury protection I’m not fond of the deal. However I really like the Beltre signing and the Scutaro signing. They got some quality players without having to dish out huge contracts.
I’m also glad that they didn’t resign Bay. I know he was a huge part of the Sox offense, but I don’t think he is going to age well and at 32 years of age he is due to start declining soon, couple that with his bad knees and I think he is going to end up being a mess for the Mets.
That’s a pretty flimsy rationale to offer if you’re going to criticize teams like the Yankees in the next breath. Can’t have it both ways.
I actually like the Lackey signing. When it because obvious that they wouldn’t be able to improve the offense in the free agent market making a move for another front line pitcher was the move they could make. A Beckett, Lester, Lackey rotation could possibly be a modern day Maddux, Glavin, Smoltz!