Parsing the payroll

Happy Home Opener. (Man, it seems like there are a gazillion Opening Day-type events. Not complaining. I'll take it.)

Because we like to keep track of these things, here's the Royals Opening Day payroll. Warning: It's a record.

(The ^ indicates year of arbitration. The * indicates disabled list.)

I don't know about you, but I never thought I'd see a Royals payroll that high. As we've noted many times before, the budget is nice. It's how you spend the budget that could make it even better. There aren't as many clunkers on this payroll as before, so that's nice. Yes, the Hochevar contract was questionable even before he went down for the season with Tommy John surgery. Paying Emilio Bonifacio over a half million to vanquish National League pitching isn't the best thing. Paying Wade Davis that kind of cash to come out of the bullpen. Yada, yada, yada.

If we're going to note the bad, let's note the good. Despite showing an early elevated strikeout rate, I expect the Aoki contract to be a strong piece of business. The Perez deal was a steal when he signed it and it remains a steal today. And there's no sign of Jeff Francoeur or Yuniesky Betancourt.

Here's how the 2014 payroll compares to the others through the last decade:

I like this chart because it shows the moment when the Royals went young and how that bill comes due in 2014. Hosmer, Moustakas and the rest of the Class of 2011 is either arbitration-eligible now or will be next year. That, along with some big contracts like James Shields coming off the books will make it interesting to see where the Royals go in 2015 and beyond.

But for now, it's the Home Opener. This is the team. This is the payroll.

Play ball.