One of the big new additions to the collective bargaining agreement signed between the league and the players was the implementation of a $50MM bonus pool set aside for players with less than three years of league service time.
The pool would be handed out to the top 100 eligible players, with MLB’s WAR metric determining which players made the list. Beyond that, further bonuses could be earned for qualified players if they ranked in the top two of Rookie of the Year, top five in MVP or Cy Young, as well as being named in the first or second All-MLB team.
According to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers, White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease topped the class in 2022, taking home a bonus of $2,457,426, in addition to his $750K base salary. Cease threw 184 innings of 2.20 ERA ball for Chicago this year, finishing 2nd in AL Cy Young voting. That finish earned him $1.75MM in addition to the $707,425 he earned for his WAR ranking. 2022 was Cease’s last pre-arbitration season, so he won’t be eligible for the bonus pool after the 2023 season.
The Astros’ Yordan Alvarez was the top hitter on the list, as he took home a $2,381,143 bonus. Alvarez torched pitching to the tune of a .306/.406/.613 line with 37 home runs, finishing third in AL MVP voting. He picked up $881,143 as the top ranked player via the WAR metric, and an additional $1.5MM for his MVP finish. He also won’t be eligible for the pool next season.
Here’s the top ten bonus pool earners (all of these figures are in addition to the player’s base salary):
- Dylan Cease: $2,457,426
- Yordan Alvarez: $2,381,143
- Alek Manoah: $2,191,023
- Zac Gallen: $1,670,875
- Julio Rodriguez: $1,550,850
- Michael Harris: $1,361,435
- Emmanuel Clase: $1,354,962
- Andres Gimenez: $1,308,805
- Adley Rutschman: $1,177,555
- Kyle Tucker: $1,146,555
Per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, Atlanta’s Spencer Strider was the only other player to earn a bonus greater than $1MM, while four more players (Sean Murphy, Tommy Edman, Will Smith and Ryan Helsley) earned more than $700K, with another eleven players (Steven Kwan, Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, Nestor Cortes, Logan Webb, Shane McClanahan, Cal Raleigh, Daulton Varsho, Nico Hoerner, Triston McKenzie and Tony Gonsolin) earned a bonus greater than $500K.
Each player’s team will pay out the bonuses by December 23, but they will be reimbursed by the Commissioner’s Office.
Nice little Festivus present.
Festivus not for the rest of us!
Time for the airing of grievances!
I grieve for the true meaning of Christmas.
Thank you, Mr. Wet Blanket.
@Trumbo, I have no grievances with this. In fact, I had forgotten about this new provision in the CBA. I think it’s awesome! For a sport that pays so little to it’s athletes early in their careers,
this feels right. Congrats to all the recipients (on their play, and their $)!!
giantsphan, Another Festivus Miracle! But you still gotta participate in the Feats Of Strength…
Is there a sport that does pay their athletes well enough early in their careers? Serious question. It seems the three major professional sports all pay based on draft position initially, but then have to wait until that first time through free agency before they are actually paid what they’re worth. Perhaps baseball players have to wait longer, it seems?
It’s great for a very small number of younger players. Over half of all major league players are pre-arbitration. In 2022, that worked out to about 800 players. 100 players get bonuses. So only about 12% of pre-arbitration players got a bonus. And it costs each team only $1.67 M.
Congrats to Cease!
Didn’t he use to play on the Cubbies?
He never did play for the Cubbies, but nice to see you have the Cubs on your mind like all #1 White Sox fans should.
Love seeing multiple Cleveland players on the list. I saw at least 4.
Clase, Gimenez, Kwan & McKenzie! So many young players hitting their stride! Great time to be a Cleveland fan!
Especially with a stacked farm full of pitching and middle-infielders
Definitely I’m so excited
Reimbursed by commissioners office is an interesting part of it, why would any team say no to it
The teams contribute their 1/30th. This then supplies the bonuses
Because they own 1/30 of that money and some owners are cheap. Remember Charlie Finley?
Charlie Comiskey was worse
Right behind Charles Comiskey comes Jerry Reinsdorf. How can White Sox fans be so lucky?
How was Dylan Cease and Zac Gallen not in the All Star game this year?
Fan voting
Fans don’t vote on pitchers..they are selected by the manager …
Blackburn rep’d Oakland and Perez Rangers as its All Stars. Nestor Cortes hot start and being a Yankee the other factor.
To be fair Perez was deserving of a spot.
Gallen had a rough patch of starts in June/July that likely contributed to him being left off the roster.
“Mike Harris”?
Yes, friend and teammate of Ron Acu.
Maybe it’s NIL money? Mike Harris is still in college..
Quite the ‘holiday’ bonus for Dylan Cease. Also a well deserved one for the 2022 AL Cy Young runner-up.
Key words there: ‘runner up’ and not ‘winner’. Here is another ‘hope’ for Sox fans that Cease does not revert to the guy from a few seasons ago, like Giolito….
Fan voting
G8ven that he’s already signed a $210-$470 million contract, isn’t Julio’s S1 million bonus not addressing what this was designed to do?
The extension begins in 2023, he was paid 700k this year
I’m pretty impressed with how it worked out considering the amount left to sports writers. But yes?
Wrong Mike Harris. Should be Braves CF Michael Harris II https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/harrimi04.shtml
Good spot – thanks!
Who the hell is Mike Harris?
Someone who plays or played college baseball. I guess that’s were Michael Harris was supposed to be.
Is it really that difficult to double check links in your articles? This is a free site, but you do get revenue, and it’s just plain sloppy.
A lot of links to check. I can understand how it happened.
For being free, maybe YOU could try being kinder? How about bringing it to light without admonishing?
No need to be a jerk.
What was brendan Donovan’s bonus, would have thought it would be pretty high based on his WAR and 3rd place rookie of the year finish?
According to bRef, Gonsolin had 4.6 WAR and Donovan only had 4.1, so he probably didn’t get over $500k. Only the top 2 finishers in ROY get a bonus.
Bo Bichette was on the list and he only had a bRef WAR of 3.6
Not sure if there was some reason why Donovan was not eligible.
MLB uses its own version of WAR, and it probably doesn’t exactly match bRef. I didn’t mean to imply that they use bRef. Donovan probably got money, just not over $500k.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they took an average of publicly available WARs.
Perez never deserved anything. He just got lucky with double plays and stealing strikes.
Do these payments count toward the luxury tax?
I can’t imagine it would. That would be punishing a team for having a good young player. I’d guess it will be treated as some sort of bonus exterior to the payroll. Maybe like another team paying part of the salary.
@Coop – They do not count towards the CBT. These bonuses are paid by MLB and not each team.
Is the $1.67M that each team pays into the bonus pool, included in each team’s CBT number?
No, it’s not. CBT just comes from actual player contracts, not league bonuses.
Young athletes of America. It’s time you put more emphasis on baseball where you can make lots of money and you won’t be in a wheelchair at fifty.
…and you can also have mediocre years and still get paid cause its guaranteed money.
007, in other words..DOWN WITH SCHOOL! BASEBALL IS LIFE!!! WOOOOoooOoooOoo!!
Love all the Tribe players on the list….
Baseball as a whole finally got something right here! While a $700K+ base salary for these young players is quite lucrative to us average Americans, these teams and the league have been pocketing millions based off the performance of young stars since the beginning of MLB. It’s nice to see these kids financially rewarded for contributing so much to their teams and to the brand as well. You could argue they deserve much more than this but if they continue to develop, that will more than take care of itself down the road.
No Arraez? Only won the batting title.
He has super 2 status. He’s not eligible.
He’s super 2 but I still thought Miranda, Ryan or Duran would get an extra payday
No Arraez?!?!? Batting Title winner?!??? What the heck?!?!?!?!
Arraez is arb-eligible. He can negotiate his own bonus.
Hope he does bham he deserves it!
Yeah, he’s pretty awesome. I love high-BA/high-OBP guys. Old school hitters. A little reminiscent of Doug Mientkiewicz.
Oh yea…Ichiro…Pierre…Mauer…Damon…
Gwynn.
Agree or disagree with the formula, this pre-arb bonus concept is one of the things that the new CBA got right.
Guys should get paid more in pre-arb, and if this is the way it happens, then this is the way it happens.
Bully for all those who can benefit.
Good for them. This is how it should be, instead of paying Trea Turner and Xander Bogaerts into their 40s. If only they got paid up front what they’re truly worth, but the union would never go for it. Gee, I wonder why?
Btw, does anyone know how MLB’s version of WAR is calcuated, or is it proprietary?
It seems like Adolis Garcia would have been prominent on this list. Maybe I don’t understand how it works.
If you are arbitration eligible, you do not qualify. So only players in their first three years qualify for the bonus so long as the don’t earn Super 2 status. Also, if you sign a long term deal, I don’t believe you are eligible. Someone like Spencer Strider who has a rich contract starting next season earned a bonus this year but will be ineligible next year because of his contract status. So basically, you need to be on the ‘rookie’ salary plan and not locked up to a multi-year deal or arbitration eligible. Not sure where Adonis stands in his career, but if he is still on the rookie pay scale for years 1, 2 or 3 he probably did earn a bonus under this plan.
I believe I just found the answer. Adolis Garcia played one season professionally for the Yomiuri Giants of the NPB before signing a free agent contract with the Cardinals. That disqualified him from this pool.
I’m glad in the end it worked out to 50M. Didn’t the owners want it to be much less?
Owners wanted much less but the players originally wanted $100M+, so they compromised.
Iirc, Owners proposed $10M, after initially resisting the idea at all.
Good for Michael Harris and Spencer Strider…Congrats to them both
However, why was Braves C/DH William Contreras not listed? All-Star, and had a very solid season, as he was one of the top 5 hitting catchers in all of baseball..
Excuse my ignorance, as I’m not quite up to speed on how this all works, but I figured he would have gotten a solid to at least decently moderate bonus with the season he had…
Any helpful insight would be greatly appreciated…
Contreras only had 2.7 bWAR a a part-time player. I’m guessing MlB’s formula isn’t too far off of bRef. The article only listed players who got at least $500k. Contreras likely got a decent bonus, but not that much.
The White Sox need to STOP losing real BALLERS because of money. Times have changed, and players are not getting 5-10 year deals, period. Lock Cease DOWN! He’s is now the best player on the team.
When, recently, have the White Sox lost.. ahem.. “BALLERS” …because of money? Who.. Abreu? Please…..Abreu was not let go due to the money, the Sox could have paid what the Astros offered… They chose not to (for few reasons). I cannot think of anyone relevant they lost, due to money (at least recently). Dumb trades sure, but not losing FA due to money. Also, one good year out of a bunch of average/mediocre ones does not make a player great. Also saying he is the best on the Sox is not saying much.. I want to see him do it again and not look like the 2nd coming of Giolito.
670 The Score in Chicago has a Cubs fan hosting on Saturday mornings. He actually suggested in April, that the White Sox should trade Dylon Cease and Andrew Vaughn to the Cubs for Kyle Hendricks.
This is what it’s like to be a Sox fan in this city.
Every Cubs’ fan has those moronic trade ideas to even thinking the Cubs are going to sign this or that player. I remember a lot of Cubs’ fans saying Harper was suppose to come here to play with Bryant to trading Bryant would get them a haul of prospects. The White Sox will most likely extend Cease if he can pitch another full season.