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When the Royals opened the 2013 season in Chicago, they did so with a team-record payroll of over $81 million. Here's the list of players and the amount they will be paid for their efforts this season.
|
Player |
$$$ |
|
Ervin Santana |
12,000,000 |
|
James Shields |
11,250,000 |
|
Alex Gordon |
9,000,000 |
|
Billy Butler |
8,500,000 |
|
Jeff Francoeur |
6,750,000 |
|
Jeremy Guthrie |
5,000,000 |
|
Luke Hochevar |
4,560,000 |
|
Bruce Chen |
4,500,000 |
|
Alcides Escobar |
3,000,000 |
|
Wade Davis |
2,800,000 |
|
Felipe Paulino* |
1,750,000 |
|
Noel Arguelles* |
1,380,000 |
|
Aaron Crow |
1,280,000 |
|
Miguel Tejada |
1,100,000 |
|
Chris Getz |
1,050,000 |
|
George Kottaras |
1,000,000 |
|
Salvador Perez |
1,000,000 |
|
JC Gutierrez |
750,000 |
|
Greg Holland |
539,500 |
|
Tim Collins |
534,500 |
|
Luis Mendoza |
532,000 |
|
Eric Hosmer |
528,250 |
|
Mike Moustakas |
524,500 |
|
Elliot Johnson |
520,500 |
|
Kelvin Herrera |
508,175 |
|
Jarrod Dyson |
506,000 |
|
Danny Duffy* |
505,125 |
|
Lorenzo Cain |
503,175 |
|
TOTAL |
81,871,725 |
Data provided by Cot's Contracts.
I gave Ervin Santana $12 million because that is the amount he's owed by the Royals. The Angels are kicking in the remaining $1 million on his contract. Danny Duffy and Felipe Paulino are on the disabled list and are technically counted. Noel Arguelles has a guaranteed major league contract and he counts as well.
The Royals payroll has really fluctuated over the previous ten seasons.
The 2005 season was after the disappointing 2004 season where the Royals "went for it" after coming close in 2003. The drop in 2008 was from shedding the Mike Sweeney contract. In recent history, the 2011 dip was the result of removing Zack Greinke and Gil Meche from the ledger.
And now, we are at 2013 and a record payroll for this team. As we've discussed before, it's a good payroll, but it could be better.
Since it's my contention the Royals are under the threshold for Mr. Glass to make a profit, the Royals fiscal strategy going forward will be interesting. If this team is in the thick of the race, will they be buyers? It appears the room is there to add payroll. That could be useful.