Red Sox’ Future Payroll Features Highly Paid Stars

2020 salary terms are set to be hammered out in the coming days. But what about what’s owed to players beyond that point? The near-term economic picture remains questionable at best. That’ll make teams all the more cautious with guaranteed future salaries.

Every organization has some amount of future cash committed to players, all of it done before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. There are several different ways to look at salaries; for instance, for purposes of calculating the luxury tax, the average annual value is the touchstone, with up-front bonuses spread over the life of the deal. For this exercise, we’ll focus on actual cash outlays that still have yet to be paid.

We’ll run through every team, with a big assist from the Cot’s Baseball Contracts database. First up is the Red Sox:

Red Sox Total Future Cash Obligation: $355.85MM

*includes Chris Sale contract deferrals

*includes remaining obligations to David Price (traded to Dodgers)

*J.D. Martinez can opt out of contract after 2020

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