Pirates ace Paul Skenes topped the 2025 pre-arbitration bonus pool, taking home just over $3.4MM, per the Associated Press. He was followed by Cristopher Sánchez of the Phillies at $2.7MM and Hunter Brown of the Astros at $2.2MM.
The 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement introduced the pre-arb bonus pool as a way for younger players to get paid earlier in their careers. Every team pays roughly $1.67MM into the pool, which adds up to a $50MM total. That money is then dispersed to pre-arb players, even if they have signed an early-career extension. In many cases, the pool is a greater source of income than a player’s salary. The league minimum was $760K in 2025 and many pre-arb players would have played the season getting paid something close to that.
The payouts are initially determined based on awards voting. Winning MVP or Cy Young nets a player $2.5MM. Finishing second place leads to $1.75MM, with $1.5MM for third place and $1MM for fourth or fifth place. Winning Rookie of the Year translates to $750K with runners-up getting $500K. Players get $1MM for being named first-team All-MLB and $500K for second-team.
Players cannot double up on those awards-based tallies. They will receive the highest of those numbers they earn. Skenes won the National League Cy Young Award, so that accounted for $2.5MM of his total payout. He was also named first-team All-MLB but did not get an extra $1MM for that.
The remainder of the pool is then paid out to the top 100 qualified players based on a Wins Above Replacement formula that has been agreed to by Major League Baseball and the Major League Players Association.
Right-hander Dylan Cease, then with the White Sox, topped the pool in its inaugural year. Mariners outfielder Julio Rodríguez came out on top in 2023, followed by Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. in 2024. The Associated Press link above has details on the payouts for every player who qualified, so curious readers are encouraged to click that link for the full info. Here are the ten players who received at least $1MM:
- Skenes: $3,436,343
- Sánchez: $2,678,437
- Brown: $2,206,538
- Bryan Woo: $1,540,676
- Corbin Carroll: $1,341,674
- Nick Kurtz: $1,297,017
- Pete Crow-Armstrong: $1,206,207
- Drake Baldwin: $1,175,583
- Brice Turang: $1,155,884
- Junior Caminero: $1,068,739
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Skenes is worth every penny
3.4 m is an absolute bargain.
@Acoss1331
3.4M for the best pitcher in baseball? I wonder what lesser skilled pitchers are getting…? 🙂
Per FanGraphs, Skenes provided $52 million in value this year.
Yep. Anthony was brought up too late for the big money but signed long term and got even bigger money…
I thought Sanchez was extended previously?
Doesn’t matter. Anyone whose service time would have them in their pre-arbitration years is eligible for these payouts.
Pirates pay in $1.67M, Skenes gets $3.4M. Leave it to the Pirates to find the best pre-arb player in baseball so Nutting can find another avenue to soak the system
that can be said about every better pre arbitration players, not just Skenes and the other players’
respective teams
Are you a relative to Bob Nutting? You have this crazy obsession for the guy. It doesn’t matter what it is, the negative energy you bring to any post, is suffocating. I have yet to see a comment posted from you that didn’t have “Nutting” and negative vibes. You must be the life of the party on all social get togethers.
But to your opinion, arb numbers and Skenes rookie scale contract, are within the CBA. He’s still getting paid more than any other sophomore in league, and by a large margin. Don’t worry, he will get what he is worth after his rookie contract expires in 3 years. He will get a record and ground shattering contract. None of this is within Nuttings control. Cleveland, Minnesota, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and other smaller markets could never give Skenes the contract he will get in 2029. Only large markets will be able to absorb Skenes financial commitments. It’s not of Nuttings fault, but the economics of the sport. Rich will buy the best, the middle class will develop the best, and lower will cherish whatever small window they have with a superstar of Skenes caliber.
I am not a huge fan of Nutting and believe he does the bare minimum to improve the club. But unlike you, I don’t need to make everything Nuttings fault. Somethings are out of his control
Seriously, if any fan base deserves an “I’ll just shut up and sign the checks” owner, it’s Pittsburgh.
MLB rookie scale contracts 🤡
Hey the Giants have a couple guys on the list! One of em had TJS and will miss the entire season! But still!
I womder how many arbitration years the pirates are going to be able to stomach. Surely he’ll be setting some records there too
The answer is one
Just offer up a haul of Schlittler, Rice, Dominguez and Hernandez-Cruz plus another pitching prospect and get it done!
For who, Skenes? If so, keep your pitching prospects. Just pony up your top farm player at each position. That should do.
(Yeah. I’m joking )
That Yankees offer is not nearly enough.
The underpayment of young stars is one of the truly market-distorting aspects of this CBA since forever. The bonus pool is the right step
The dead money spent on washed up guys is also market-distorting b/c only a few deep pocket major market clubs can outspend the mistakes when costly guys are on the IL a lot or bad.
The expanded playoffs makes the strategy better to try to string together a few wildcards/reset to bad/repeat (although Central teams with lower revenues can avoid resets with lack of divisional big spenders if FO is somewhat competent-unlike a Rays or Marlins situation).
In other words, the expanded playoffs discourage teams from trying too hard, i. e., spending to win. This is what the owners want.
Older free agents sign for what they can get, and if they are high performing one of the things they can get is contract length. Sometimes it’s just a way of spreading out total compensation.. The only way to rein that it is to create a buyout on extant contracts at some discount, or something like the Red Sox “Lackey” clause.
A pay for performance model is the right step. Unfortunately you can’t do that for all of them yet.
I would trade the 4 top Mets prospects for Skenes. Who say no???”
Pirates