Apparently, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei was serious a couple of weeks ago when he said the Braves would "spend some money" this offseason. And apparently, Braves executive Mike Plant was serious, too, when he said on that same day, "We're going to go after it."
Let's crunch the numbers on the team's 2020 payroll after Wednesday's latest expenditure, the signing of free-agent starting pitcher Cole Hamels to a one-year, $18 million deal:
Players under contract: The Braves currently have 12 players signed to contracts for a total of $101.25 million in salaries next season. That group includes first baseman Freddie Freeman ($22 million); relief pitchers Mark Melancon ($14 million), Will Smith ($13 million), Chris Martin ($7 million) and Darren O'Day ($2.25 million); catchers Travis d'Arnaud ($8 million) and Tyler Flowers ($4 million); outfielders Ender Inciarte ($7 million), Nick Markakis ($4 million) and Ronald Acuna ($1 million); second baseman Ozzie Albies ($1 million); and now Hamels ($18 million).
The Braves signed three of those players as free agents from outside the organization within the past month: Hamels, Smith and d’Arnaud. Those three contracts total $39 million in 2020 salaries and $74 million over the full lengths of the deals.
Add the re-signings of Flowers, Markakis, O’Day and Martin, and the Braves in the past month or so have inked seven players to contracts totaling $56.25 million in 2020 salaries and almost $100 million -- $98.25 million, to be precise -- over the full contracts.
Four of the seven players signed or re-signed in the past month got one-year deals, and only one of them got more than two years. Smith got a three-year, $40 million contract; d’Arnaud a two-year, $16 million contract; and Martin a two-year, $14 million contract.
Players eligible for salary arbitration: The Braves this week offered contracts to seven arbitration-eligible players. Here are those players and their projected salaries: starting pitcher Mike Foltynewicz ($7.5 million); relief pitchers Shane Greene ($6.5 million), Luke Jackson ($1.9 million) and Grant Dayton ($800,000); shortstop Dansby Swanson ($3.3 million); outfielder Adam Duvall ($3.8 million); and utilityman Johan Camargo ($1.6 million).
That’s a total of $25.4 million in projected arbitration salaries. Add that to the $101.25 million in 2020 salaries committed to players already with signed contracts, and next season’s payroll is up to $126.65 million.
Other players, including further potential acquisitions in free agency and trades: Tack on a few million dollars for combined salaries to pre-arbitration players -- notably Mike Soroka, Max Fried, Sean Newcomb and Austin Riley, among others -- and the Braves' 2020 payroll is around $130 million before any further moves.
That’s still below their 2019 end-of-season payroll of $144 million because the new signings are offset by the removal of Dallas Keuchel, Julio Teheran, Brian McCann and (at least for now) Josh Donaldson from the payroll, as well as a sharp reduction in O’Day’s salary and other players becoming free agents. But with the Braves still in need of re-signing Donaldson -- or acquiring a power hitter to replace him -- it certainly appears they’re prepared to increase the payroll from the 2019 level.
Stay tuned. Baseball’s winter meetings are next week.
About the Author
