As per RosterResource‘s estimates, the Diamondbacks spent around $191.3MM on payroll in 2025, which translated to a $214.8MM luxury tax number. The Snakes are currently projected for a $195.2MM payroll and a $223.7MM tax figure, as team managing general partner Ken Kendrick’s statement from last September that his club “will not be spending at the same level” has ended up being incorrect.
Kendrick addressed this topic when speaking with the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other reporters at the Diamondbacks’ spring camp, saying simply that “well, sometimes you surprise yourself in life in what you do.” The D’Backs are set for their third consecutive payroll increase since the team won the NL pennant in 2023, and while they haven’t since returned to the postseason, Kendrick remains intent on keeping the team in position to contend.
“I want us to be successful. I want our fans to feel that we are committed to investing every dollar possible and putting the best team we can put together on the field….I don’t want to overplay it, but, to a degree, we’re in a partnership with the fans,” Kendrick said. “That’s the way I see what we do. We’re in a partnership with our fans. They generate revenue by buying tickets and coming to ball games and supporting us. And as a good partner, we need to take the money they spend and invest it wisely, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The spending may not be over, since Kendrick said “we have some room beyond where we are, but we don’t have a ton of room….Do we have the possibility of adding from the present moment? Yeah, possibly. Not highly likely of significance, but we have some room to add without getting into a tax problem.”
The D’backs are still well shy of the $244MM luxury tax threshold, though their current $223.7MM figure is as close as the organization has ever been to exceeding the tax line. While Kendrick has obviously okayed larger expenditures already, it is probably safe to assume that $244MM is Arizona’s budget ceiling, though the team has some room to maneuver in terms of trade deadline upgrades.
Expanding the payroll has reportedly put the D’Backs into the red, as Piecoro hears from sources that the club lost around $30MM in 2025. It is always a source of conjecture about how much or little any MLB team (apart from the Braves, who are publicly owned) is really making given all of the accounting that goes into a club’s many revenues streams, yet even if the Diamondbacks did operate at a loss, it hasn’t stopped Kendrick from continuing to spend on a roster he believes is capable of big things. Further spending to ensure a more competitive team may well be the most logical way of getting the team back into the black, as a winning product leads to higher attendance, higher TV ratings, and extra games in the form of playoff contests.
More moves could come before Opening Day, albeit on a lower spending scale. John Gambadoro of 98.7 Arizona Sports writes that the D’Backs are looking to trade a prospect for a utilityman type of player. This new addition would replace the recently-traded Blaze Alexander as a multi-position asset coming off the Diamondbacks’ bench. While an exact match for Alexander may not be a priority, Alexander is a right-handed hitter who saw time as second base, third base, shortstop, left field, and center field over his two seasons in the desert.
Most of Arizona’s offseason spending was invested in two familiar faces. Zac Gallen spent most of the winter on the free agent market after rejecting Arizona’s qualifying offer, but this past week returned to the fold on a one-year, $22.025MM deal that technically matches the value of the QO, though $14MM of the money is deferred. After the D’Backs traded Merrill Kelly to the Rangers at the trade deadline, Kelly was brought back in December on a two-year deal worth $40MM in guaranteed money, with a vesting option covering the 2028 season.
Soon after Kelly re-signed, reports emerged that a team on the West Coast made Kelly a three-year offer worth over $50MM, and that the Padres were one of Kelly’s prime suitors. Speaking with Piecoro and other media today, Kelly said the Padres had a three-year deal on the table, though he didn’t confirm the dollar figure. Beyond whatever numbers were involved, Kelly said his decision was based in large part on his family. It may well be that the Kelly clan simply preferred returning to the familiar routine of living and playing in Arizona, and Kelly himself said last summer amidst trade speculation that he would be open to re-signing with the Snakes in free agency.
Turning to an injury update, manager Torey Lovullo told reporters (including Alex Weiner of 98.7 Arizona Sports) that first baseman Tyler Locklear isn’t expected back until sometime around mid-May or possibly early June. Locklear underwent twin surgeries to fix both a labrum problem in his left shoulder and a ligament tear in his left elbow. There was some hope Locklear would be ready to return to the Diamondbacks’ lineup at some point in April, though today’s news puts more of a specific timeline in place.
Locklear will definitely start the season on at least the 10-day injured list, and a move to the 60-day IL would occur if the D’Backs are certain Locklear won’t be ready by the end of May. The team can continue to monitor his progress throughout Spring Training and in April with no penalty, as a shift to the 60-day IL would still keep Locklear’s placement date as Opening Day.
Over 47 games and 165 career plate appearances with the Mariners and Diamondbacks, Locklear has hit just .169/.255/.277 against Major League pitching. His impressive minor league numbers hint at more potential, though once he does get healthy, Locklear’s potential spot as a platoon partner with Pavin Smith at first base has now been filled by Carlos Santana. Since Arizona doesn’t have a set DH, there is room for Locklear to potentially earn some at-bats down the road, but for the next three months, his only priority is completing his rehab.
Trying to build goodwill before the next CBA negotiation?
Depends in part if the team is increasing g in values.
Depends in part on if owners can take short term cash flow deficits to achieve increased value in capital.
Depends in part if alleged losses are real, which no outsider can verify.
Ken Kendrick is 83 years old. I’m sure he’ll survive the minor overspend.
But each MLB franchise appreciates at a different rate and the club success is one factor of many that impacts that rate.
Disagree on both fronts.
A winning team like Dodgers appreciates more than a losing team like White Sox.
Diamondbacks made the World Series in 2023 from a very competitive division. Just because Monty and Burnsy contracts flamed doesn’t mean the strategy sucks.
Yes, and again, the owner is 83 years old. He’s not interested in planning and stockpilling assets for six years from now.
Old York
I gave you a like for saying people live into their 100s. Can use the optimism! 😀
Well the Roster Respurce calculation of Gallen’s ‘26 deal (not AAV) is the full $22+ mil, but they’re actually only paying him $8 million in ‘26. The deferrals are funded with a conservative investment growth factor built in and need to be funded within 2 years for deferrals paid well down the road. So their value for ‘26 is overstated by $14 million. But Kendrick says thanks for making me look good.
Applause for Ken Kendrick. It’s tough to buy your way into the playoffs when you play in the same division as the Dodgers. But at least he keeps trying and he seems to remember the role fans play in the team’s success.
MLB needs more owners like him.
It’s good to see teams willing to lose some money every now and again rather than packet the extra year after year
if the team is supposedly exploring utility players when they already have Tawa and to a lesser degree, NRI Ildemaro Vargas, I got to scratch my head a bit. Vargas did an unexpectedly decent job last year and should have broke camp with the team last year when they inexplicably went with Hampson over him. Kendrick is at least directing the FO to do their best to field a competitive team on the field while waiting on the recovery of some key assets, isn’t that what we as fans. want ownership to do?
The issue with Tawa and Vargas (plus Alexander) is that the team doesn’t (and didn’t) seem to have confidence in their ability to cover SS.
The team can’t go into the season with Plan A being for Perdomo to play 161 games again. Everybody feels more comfortable when he’s playing, but he needs rest, too.
La parte de los impuestos independiente de la nómina o es sumando la nómina con los impuestos?
Not sure, let me ask Tony…
The calculation for the tax bill is not the same as straight payroll. There is a lot more accounting that goes into it with deferred money/ bonuses/ player benefits/ etc. it can be lower or higher than actual dollars being spent.
As an aside this is a comment section on a website of which the point is to have discussions. Maybe take the 2 seconds and throw your stuff into google translate before posting on a website that clearly uses the English language. If you said English wasn’t your first language sorry about the rough translation we would all be understanding.
Although I understand your point – which is totally valid – I think he has the right to address the 30% of the population of Arizona who speaks Spanish. In any case, anyone could also do what you did to answer his question. As you say, it only takes 2 seconds.
i bet you hated the football concert too
I’m going to ignore Poole because it’s a ridiculous comment
@1974 without a doubt I also understand your point, I’m just of the mind that having a set language where people communicate on a website makes it easier on everyone, sure one other language might be fine but what if people start putting Japanese on articles on their players or French when discussing expansion relating to Montreal? Nevermind trying to translate different dialects as well. It gets very confusing and difficult and kinda defeats the purpose of clear communication.
that was in jest, i was hoping calling it the football concert was unserious enough for that to come across. i think it’s really cool that different languages are coming up in the comment section, the more the merrier. maybe MLBTR can work on a translate option in the comment section to accommodate our non-english friends?
We need a dang sarcasm font at MLBTR lol
If the halftime show was by an Italian opera singer singing in Italian, would there have been such a ruckus?
I completely understand you, you have a good point. The thing is that -unlike other wonderful languages- there is a big reason why, in the United States, every time you make a phone call to a state or federal office or to any business office, the voice you will hear will say “for Spanish press 2”.
Al que le interese saber que escribí que le de a traducir.
Y mi pregunta no es como se calcula el impuesto dije q si el monto de la nómina estaba dentro de ese monto de impuesto o si eran cantidades diferentes.
“Lost around 30M”…..when terms like this are thrown around, we have no idea if that is a book loss, tax loss, cash flow loss….terminology matters and writers need to clarify and not leave assumptions. Though I guess the writer is only passing on other people’s assumptions so nobody really knows anything about anything to do with a club’s finances.
The next sentence literally mentions those numbers are open to conjecture since the numbers are not public
How one feels about them buying separation/relevance depends entirely on how one feels about the abilities of Burnes, Gurriel, Martinez, Puk, and Saalfrank to return and perform. Now there’s even the question of Carroll’s power production after the hamate injury.
They’re papering over the injuries to the top-end of their roster; that’s clear to everybody. They’re a complete wild card to even make the Wild Card. In a division with the Dodgers, this is kind of the only option with ~$54MM on the IL to start the season.
Trade Rumors really likes their Diamondbacks notes.
To be fair, the DBacks were pretty active this offseason.
They signed: Clarke, Gallen, Kelly, McCann, Santana, Sewald, and Soroka
They traded for: Arenado and Strowd (parting with Alexander and McCarthy in the bevy of moves)
And that’s not including the injury updates or guys that aren’t currently on the 40-Man.
Love to see the Dbacks all in especially after injury to Burnes. NL West is tough company
vaderzim, lots of Dbacks news of late. Aside from Carroll’s and Saalfranks injuries, its been a good couple of weeks to be a fan.
DBacks ownership says the same thing every year. No spending! Then they spend on a pitcher. At least they are trying to contend instead of blowing it up. And they are managing fan expectations.