Recently, we ran through the full slate of future financial commitments teams have made to MLB players. As I explained throughout that series of posts, there are several different ways to look at salaries. Since the purpose of this exercise is to see where teams stand as we enter a period of massive uncertainty in the player market, we utilized actual cash still due beyond the 2020 campaign. That includes signing bonuses, deferred money, and money owed to since-traded players.
Every individual team’s breakout can be found at this link. Little has changed since, with one notable exception: the sizable Mookie Betts deal now resides on the Dodgers’ balance sheet. It’s reflected in the charts below. Now, we can put it all together to see how every team stacks up around the game. There’s over $7B in total future commitments tallied here. We’ll break it out in several ways (all charts in millions of dollars).
This chart shows total future MLB guaranteed contract commitments, in the aggregate.
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Future MLB Contracts
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| 2021 | $4,146.86 |
| 2022 | $3,459.90 |
| 2023 | $3,069.35 |
| 2024 | $2,730.37 |
| 2025 | $2,464.12 |
| 2026+ | $1,378.47 |
| Total | $7,134.08 |
And here we have each team’s total future commitments. These numbers would look different if we applied a discount rate, of course. Some teams with longer-fuse commitments (the Brewers and Dodgers, for example) would come out looking lighter. But there’s no single correct discount rate to apply, particularly in times as uncertain as these. So we’ll stick with a simple tally.
| Rank | Team | Total |
| 1 | Angels | $651.00 |
| 2 | Yankees | $612.00 |
| 3 | Dodgers | $533.36 |
| 4 | Nationals | $488.68 |
| 5 | Phillies | $488.50 |
| 6 | Padres | $396.00 |
| 7 | Red Sox | $355.85 |
| 8 | Rockies | $337.50 |
| 9 | White Sox | $317.75 |
| 10 | Brewers | $299.30 |
| 11 | Reds | $290.88 |
| 12 | Astros | $254.79 |
| 13 | Cardinals | $230.75 |
| 14 | Cubs | $228.50 |
| 15 | Braves | $204.53 |
| 16 | Mets | $201.00 |
| 17 | Diamondbacks | $166.43 |
| 18 | Twins | $154.02 |
| 19 | Giants | $129.15 |
| 20 | Blue Jays | $122.07 |
| 21 | Mariners | $115.45 |
| 22 | Orioles | $106.00 |
| 23 | Tigers | $102.00 |
| 24 | Rangers | $101.50 |
| 25 | Rays | $101.17 |
| 26 | Indians | $40.65 |
| 27 | Royals | $38.75 |
| 28 | Athletics | $37.00 |
| 29 | Pirates | $15.25 |
| 30 | Marlins | $14.25 |
The most interesting way to look at the numbers is to examine all the teams’ commitments in the same chart, by year. But that’s also tough to present in a legible manner. You’ll have to click on these to see all the details.
First, the top 15 teams by total commitments (link to expand):
And now the bottom 15 teams (link to expand):
Pirates lol
Makes me sick. I’ve been a Pirates fan since I started following baseball in 1970. It makes me sick watching the organization suffer under Bob Butting’s ownership. It’s too bad for Pittsburgh and the entire western Pennsylvania region that we’re saddled with him as an owner…nothing we fans can do about it. Boycot attending the games? Nope. Nutting would still make a sizable profit from the TV contracts. We can only hope someday he decides to sell the franchise.
Didn’t read the article too closely, but I’m assuming the numbers are x1,000 or something, but I would not be surprised if the Marlins only had $14.25 in future commitments.
Salary cap
Floor cap.
Rockies had 5 bad free agent signings in a row, which explains their poor standing and being 8th here.
Ian Desmond, Daniel Murphy, Wade Davis… are these the deals you’re referring to?
Its in millions
Damn, Dodgers definitely signing Lindor
Why? The boat is already loaded.
It’s just Mookie… lol
God that is a sad sight for the angels all that money and not one playoff run in 5+ yrs and they aren’t going to be making it any time soon with the pitching they have and farm system
Rendon’s contract is included in the numbers but only started this year so it is skewed a bit. That being said there have been too many contracts doled out with minimal return. Their starting pitching this year isn’t bad. Definitely middle of the road if healthy. Their farm system isn’t as bad as people think. They have made vast improvements from 3-5 yrs ago.
I’ll start this by stating I’m not throwing stones at the Angels….
The Trout part of the future commitments is entirely understandable. Other than that the Angels have a history of throwing money at a problem, rather than developing talent. There doesn’t seem to be much coherence throughout the organisation. Just draft pitching.
It is all Dipoto’s fault. The Angel theme for how many more years?
I stopped blaming dipoto last season
Won’t matter at this rate because the sport is heading for a major crisis.
things will be fine come opening day 2021
You’re obviously an intelligent individual so I truly hope you’re right. The indicia seem to indicate otherwise.
The Rangers piss me off. You can’t convince me that the Rangers aren’t the Mets of the A.L.
Leadoff homer by Choo tonight, and then an RBI double by Gallo early on to give us a 2-1 lead. Fine. Then our pitching proceeds to blow it and give the Giants a 9-2 lead… I wish we spent money, and maybe… got a bullpen…
Even rendon wouldn’t help this team. Need to develope talent before we spend in free agency to get the finishing pieces. If Calhoun and Solak don’t develope this team is hopeless for the foreseeable future no matter what they do in free agency
I just wish that the part of the team that we really don’t develop well (the bullpen), we bought more pieces for. I’d love to see a Workman, or a fixed Edwin Diaz shut down the back of games, because I have hope that guys like Evans, Montero, Leclerc, Rodriguez, Gibaut, and Jon Hernandez could easily work the middle relief core.
As for the offense, I have super high hopes for Gallo, Calhoun, and Solak. If we can develop Jung and Huff, this team looks a lot better. I just wish that we could fix whatever is keeping us from developing our players to their full potential…
I think Mets fans would love to see another team value Diaz. Huge mystery how he fell off the cliff so far, literally from the top to the rocks below, bones smashed and organs exploded beyond recognition.
I don’t understand something, maybe I’m a dope, but:
“There’s over $7B in total future commitments tallied here.”
And then the chart list out over $17B in commitments.
The chart total shows $7,134 but the first two years total more than that amount.
What’s up?
The Rangers need to trade Lynn and Minor now while there value couldn’t be higher. Hopefully in about 3 years they can seriously contend for a division title. It’s a tough division especially with those Cheaters still having young players.