Paul Skenes Tops 2025 Pre-Arbitration Bonus Pool
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
Bobby Witt Jr. Tops Pre-Arbitration Bonus Pool
Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. received roughly $3.08MM from the pre-arbitration bonus pool, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Pirates righty Paul Skenes ($2.15MM) and Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson ($2MM) round out the top three.
The most recent collective bargaining agreement introduced a $50MM pool that is divided among players who have yet to accrue enough service time to reach arbitration. (Each team commits around $1.67MM to that fund every season.) The goal was to help highly-performing young players get paid earlier in their careers. Players are eligible even if they’ve signed a contract extension, as Witt did before the season. Despite inking a deal approaching $289MM, he’ll pick up a little more than $3MM as a result of his fantastic ’24 campaign.
A player receives $2.5MM for winning MVP or Cy Young. They’re awarded $1.75MM for a runner-up finish, $1.5MM for third place, and $1MM for fourth or fifth place. The Rookie of the Year winner in each league gets $750K, while the runners-up pick up $500K. Players named first-team All-MLB receive $1MM; a second-team All-MLB placement is worth $500K.
Players cannot double-up on those accolades. They’re paid in line with the highest award honors they received. Witt was the MVP runner-up in the American League. Skenes finished third in Cy Young voting. Henderson placed fourth in MVP voting.
After the award money is paid out, the remaining funds are divided between the top 100 eligible players based on a predetermined Wins Above Replacement formula which was mutually approved by MLB and the Players Association. William Contreras, Cole Ragans, Jarren Duran, Jackson Merrill and Luis Gil were the other players to top $1MM this year. The Associated Press lists every player who received some money based on their WAR totals — going down to Sal Frelick at a little over $232K.
Julio Rodríguez Tops 2023 Pre-Arb Bonus Pool
Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez will receive $1,865,349 from the $50MM bonus pool for pre-arbitration players, the highest of the 2023 recipients, per a report from Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. The AP later released a full list of bonus recipients.
A notable new element of the current collective bargaining agreement is that $50MM is to be taken from central revenues annually and distributed to players that have not yet qualified for arbitration. Certain portions of the money are to be based on awards voting:
- Rookie of the Year: $750K for first place, $500K for second place
- MVP and Cy Young: $2.5MM for first place, $1.75MM for second place, $1.5MM for third place, $1MM for fourth or fifth place
- All-MLB: $1MM for being named “First Team,” $500K for being named “Second Team”
As Blum highlights today, a player is eligible to receive the bonus for one of those achievements per year, earning only the highest amount. Rodríguez finished fourth in American League MVP voting, meaning he got $1MM for that, which accounted for the majority of his payout. After the bonuses, the remainder of the pool is divided on a percentage basis among the top 100 players based on the joint MLB/MLBPA-created version of WAR.
Players are still eligible even if they have signed extensions, as long as they would have been pre-arb without signing such a deal. Rodríguez and the Mariners signed a convoluted extension towards the end of his rookie season in 2022 but he’s only at two years of service time now. Since he would have been pre-arb without that extension, he was able to top this year’s pool.
The following 10 players got more than $1MM:
- Rodríguez: $1,865,349
- Corbin Carroll: $1,812,337
- Adley Rutschman: $1,798,439
- Spencer Strider: $1,692,833
- Justin Steele: $1,673,331
- Kyle Bradish: $1,666,786
- Félix Bautista: $1,467,094
- Gunnar Henderson: $1,428,001
- Jonah Heim: $1,060,306
- Tanner Bibee: $1,016,931
Last year, Dylan Cease got the biggest slice of the 2022 pie, taking home $2,457,426.
Dylan Cease Tops Pre-Arbitration Bonus Pool
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.
Details On Bonus Pool For Pre-Arbitration Players
Major League Baseball teams received a memo Thursday outlining the parameters for this year’s newly created pre-arbitration bonus pool, breaking down payouts based both on Awards voting and based on a new, MLB/MLBPA jointly created version of wins above replacement. Both ESPN’s Jeff Passan and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal offer specifics on how the pool will be divided.
The most straightforward path to earning a portion of the pool comes via voting in Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP Awards, as well as the “All-MLB Team” honors created by the league back in 2019. If a player qualifies for two (or more) Awards-based bonuses, he’ll receive the higher of the two bonuses, but not both. The bonuses are as follows:
- Rookie of the Year: $750K for first place, $500K for second place
- MVP and Cy Young: $2.5MM for first place, $1.75MM for second place, $1.5MM for third place, $1MM for fourth or fifth place
- All-MLB: $1MM for being named “First Team,” $500K for being named “Second Team”
Whatever remains of the $50MM pool will be divided, on a percentage basis, among the top 100 players based on the joint MLB/MLBPA-created version of WAR. Put another way: should the total WAR of that 100-player group equal 250, a 2.5-WAR player (accounting for 1% of the group’s total WAR) would receive 1% of the pool’s remainder. Passan and Rosenthal both note that as of Sept. 1, Oakland catcher Sean Murphy was leading pre-arbitration players in the MLB/MLBPA version of WAR. An annual report on the bonus pool and its payouts will be issued in early December, according to Rosenthal, who adds that Yordan Alvarez still qualifies to receive a bonus despite signing a sic-year extension in June that covers the 2023-28 seasons.
That’s not because the extension doesn’t kick in until next season; rather, MLBTR has confirmed with a source that all players who sign extensions will remain eligible for bonuses from the pool during what would have otherwise been their pre-arbitration seasons. For instance, Julio Rodriguez and Michael Harris, who both inked long-term deals earlier this summer, can still receive payouts from the bonus pool not only in 2022 but also in 2023 and 2024. Alvarez would have reached arbitration this offseason were it not for his extension, so this will be the lone season in which he qualifies for the bonus pool.