I've inlcluded all of the changes from the Greinke trade, the Francoeur, Melky, and Francis signings, and the arbitration settlements to Betemit, Pena, Hochevar and Gordon. I've also revised my arbitraton estimates to Butler, Davies and Tejeda downward since Moore continues to get make really good arbitration deals. Long story short, if Moore really meant it back in November when he said that the MLB payroll would be somewhere in the low 60's, then the Royals still have a lot of money to spend...if they want to.
2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | |
Gil Meche | 12.4 | ||||
Billy Butler | 4.4 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | ||
Joakim Soria | 4 | 6 CO/.75 bo | 8 CO/.75 bo | 8.75 CO/.75 bo | |
Jason Kendall | 3.75 | ||||
Kyle Davies | 2.7 | ||||
Jeff Francoeur | 2.5 | 4 MO | |||
Jeff Francis | 2 | ||||
Luke Hochevar | 1.76 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | Arb 4 | |
Robinson Tejeda | 1.6 | Arb 3 | |||
Alex Gordon | 1.4 | Arb 3 | Arb 4 | ||
Noel Arguelles | 1.38 | 1.38 | 1.38 | 1.38 | |
Melky Cabrera | 1.25 | Arb 4 | |||
Aaron Crow | 1 | 1.1 | |||
Wilson Betemit | 1 | Arb 3 | |||
Brayan Pena | 0.66 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | ||
Mike Aviles | 0.45 | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | |
Chris Getz | 0.43 | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | |
Mitch Maier | 0.42 | Arb 1 | Arb 2 | Arb 3 | |
Vin Mazzaro | 0.42 | ||||
Alcides Escobar | 0.42 | ||||
Yuniesky Betancourt | 1 | ||||
Juan Cruz | 0.5 | ||||
TOTAL | 45.44 |
Guaranteed MLB contract |
Pre-arbitration |
Arbitration |
Free Agency |
That is $45.44 million for 18 players plus Crow, Arguelles and the remaining money due to Cruz and Betancourt. Add in league minimum for 7 more players and you get $48.35 million. I imagine Dayton Moore will spend a little on a free agent reliever or two. The big question is whether he'll throw millions at another free agent starting pitcher as an innings eater (someone like Kevin Millwood) or another reclamation project (someone like Chris Young). There's certainly enough money to do any or all of the above. While some free agent roster filler makes sense, I hope Moore saves the vast majority of the remaining money to use for a better purpose like amateur draft, Latin American free agents and future FA spending.