2020 salary terms still need to be hammered out. 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. Prior entries can be found here. Next up is the Reds:
*Includes buyouts on club options over Joey Votto, Mike Moustakas, Eugenio Suarez, Wade Miley, and Tucker Barnhart
*Includes deferrals and buyout on mutual option in Nick Castellanos contract; Castellanos may opt out after 2020 or 2021
(click to expand/view detail list)
I think the owners have sent a message to the players that they are not going to dish out big cash like in the past. Castellanos won’t have the luxury to opt out after the season, no team will give him a better deal at this point. And this buyout that is put into contracts is so silly. As an owner you wouldn’t want your franchise player to become old and then you got to release buy him out. Bad relations, especially if this player is going to be a Hall of famer. I can see the Reds telling Joy bottle that we’re buying you out and we don’t want you back because you’re too old and we don’t want to pay you. Here you have a player that’s played his entire career in Cincinnati and is probably going to be a Hall of famer. In St Louis you have another player named Molina that is now old and wants to continue playing but St Louis is probably going to tell him no. Hopefully he doesn’t go anywhere else because it’d be nice for him to be a cardinal his entire career and become a Hall guy.
Joy Bottle, lol, been going through a lot of them during quarantine!
Lol, knew you’d get a kick out of Joey’s knew nickname
I’m out of Joy Bottles, anyone have some they can bring over?
There’s no buyouts in baseball. That’s a fully guaranteed deal. The reds can tell him to go kick rocks early but they’ll be paying for the whole thing
Jbigs in most instances, the option comes with a buyout that represents a fraction of the option value. If the player is injured or performs on a level that the club believes the option value to be too expensive, the club will typically pay the buyout and decline the option. I hope this helps
Yah we’ll see how long that “message” lasts. Probably until the next Harper hits free agency and several big market teams need an OF
You know you got a point John real time. I guess all the owners will talk a big game but when they get greedy they’ll just out bid each other and then the winning bidder ends up paying a huge grip contract and then we’re back at paying players ridiculously. Oh and the owners soon after will start complaining
No one forces teams to offer guys like Harper or Stanton 300 million plus… why is it that teams like the Rays and Athletics are able to produce valuable players in house and sign veterans to lower deals that are much lower than the output they produce?
Teams overpay players to “win now” pressures from ownership and due to a lack of analytics within their front office. To blame the players is wrong. They are simply trying to make a living for themselves. Even day to day people, switching jobs… we try to get as much money as we can for salary based on market demand. They’re entitled to do the same.
Good point! Is that the Ray’s and A’s prefer to do some work. The big market teams don’t care about advance scouting, just pay
I hope the Cards keep playing/paying/extending Molina. His best days are way behind him.