Pirates Settle With Walker & McDonald

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/...ates/index.html

Payroll at $68.9 million (not including Liriano - CORRECTED does include Liriano)

http://www.piratesprospects.com/2013payroll

gr1111 wrote:

If you look down to "Other Expenses", I think that number does include Liriano.

You are right.  I should have known $70+ million was too good to be true...

The $13.5 million credit for Burnett and Wandy is nice.  Kind of like having a coupon, "Buy a Burnett, get a Wandy for free and a $500K rebate"...

I would like to two free agents added:  (1) a utility infielder with a decent pinch hitting bat (an Adam Kennedy type), and (2) a bullpen lefty.

That would get them over $70M.

Looking at the savings the Pirates will have at the end of the season:

Burnett 13.5
Barmes   5.5
Karstens 2.5
Jones     4.5

Total     26 Million.

Now just think if they unload Wandy as well you will be close to 40 million lighter next season.

That would give us plenty of money to re-sign Barmes. 

gr1111 wrote: That would give us plenty of money to re-sign Barmes. 

I've heard he's worth $16 million/year  

vinnybravo wrote: Looking at the savings the Pirates will have at the end of the season:

Burnett 13.5
Barmes   5.5
Karstens 2.5
Jones     4.5

Total     26 Million.

Now just think if they unload Wandy as well you will be close to 40 million lighter next season.

I see no reason to unload Wandy if he pitches well.  If the Pirates do pick up his option for next season, they won't have to pay his full salary... I believe Houston would still be on the hook for about $5M of that.

Others have mentioned that possibility of re-signing Burnett.  If we need to, that's fine, but I'm hoping that Cole comes in and performs well enough to give a sense of confidence that he can pitch at the ML level.  I'm also hoping that either Locke or McPherson will pitch to a level worthy of a rotation spot, hence the need for Burnett won't be there and that money can be used elsewhere... like an extension for Alvarez if warranted (that said, I still don't think he'll ever see a 2nd contract here).

Those salaries come off the books but arbitration raises eat up a lot of that as well as salary increases as contracts generally go up over time.

Grilli goes from 2.5 to 4.25
McCutchen goes from 4.7 to 7.5
Martin goes from 7.5 to 9.5
Tabata goes from 1.1 to 3.1

So right there is 8.75 million in guaranteed raises

Then you have the arbitration raises (approximate)

Walker will go from 3.3 to about 5.5
McDonald goes from 3 to 5
Alvarez goes from 700K to about 3.5
Melancon goes from 500K to about 1.5
Snider goes from 500 K to about 1.5 million and possibly much more if he improves

So those are the guarantees so that adds another 9 million in salary. So just keeping those 9 guys adds another 17.75 million in salary.

Then you still have the guys on the fence who are possible guys with arbitration but could also be non tendered.

Gaby Sanchez goes from 1.75 million to about 3 million
Garrett Jones goes from about 4.5 million to 6 million
Charlie Morton goes from 2 million to 4-5 million

If you bring all these guys back you add on another lets say 5 million

Remember also we aren't saving 13.5 million off of Burnett. The Yankees are paying a lot of his salary. The Pirates are only on the hook for 8 million and that is all that is on their payroll.

This was the misconception with the Pirates before that they were being cheap but that was only because the main players were in 0-3 service years. Salaries jump when guys reach arbitration. Luckily the Pirates will have a lot of prospects coming up in the next few years especially on the pitching department. One thing that is important is avoiding super 2 situations which means we can't be calling up top prospects till mid to late June. It greatly increases the amount of payroll needed. granted the two main culprits are Walker and Jones and I'm sure the team had no idea they would develop the way they did. However if they missed super 2 status, Neil Walker would be making 500K this year and Garrett Jones about 2.5 million. So it's about 5 million in salary that could of been allocated elsewhere.