It’s getting close to hot-stove time again, which means lots of talk about potential moves, which means lots of talk about payroll. And we can’t talk about where we’re going payroll-wise unless we know where we are. So here’s a detailed look at our current payroll.
Guaranteed contracts: Derek Lowe ($15MM), Chipper Jones ($13MM), Dan Uggla ($13MM), Tim Hudson ($9MM), Brian McCann ($8.5MM), Matt Diaz ($2MM), David Ross ($1.625MM)
Total: seven players, $62.125MM
Arbitration: Michael Bourn (~$7MM), Jair Jurrjens (~$5MM), Martin Prado (~$4.5MM), Eric O’Flaherty ($~2.5MM), Peter Moylan (non-tender)
Total: four players, $19MM
Minimum salary: Brandon Beachy, Brooks Conrad, Jose Constanza, Randall Delgado, Freddie Freeman, Tommy Hanson, Jason Heyward, Brandon Hicks, Craig Kimbrel, Cristhian Martinez, Kris Medlen, Tyler Pastornicky, Jonny Venters, Arodys Vizcaino
Total: 14 players, $6.3MM
Grand total: 25 players, $87.425MM
For those of you hoping to make a big splash … unless we can unload a few contracts, we will be making a few tweaks; and that is all Liberty Media will afford the Braves. Anyone else miss “The Ted”?
Payroll figures to be in the $90MM range again, so it’s looking like we may have around $5MM to get a shortstop and utility infielder. We’ll be able to figure this out as we move deeper into the winter, but this is an initial look at projected payroll. Not much wiggle room as we stand right now.
Sigh.