On Monday, MLB Opening Day, USA Today released their yearly update to MLB’s salary database. To the shock of exactly no one, the Los Angeles Dodgers have baseball’s highest payroll at $235 million, with $47 million of that going to players not on their active roster, and their ace Clayton Kershaw is the highest-paid player in baseball, making a whopping $33 million in 2017.
But the other side of the coin is more interesting to me. We know the Dodgers have a massive commitment to payroll, but what teams are taking the cheap way out?
That list begins and ends with the San Diego Padres. Per Cot’s, the Padres have just over $69 million (nice) allotted in 2017, but more than half of that is going to players that won’t effect their team. The USA Today database has the Padres at $34.6 million in 2017, meaning that the Padres will be paying more (~$35 million) to players not on their roster than players on their roster.
To me, this is incredible. $6 million of that cash in 2017 is going to Hector Olivera, who was acquired from the Braves in exchange for Matt Kemp and immediately released by San Diego. Another $16 million is going to Melvin Upton Jr, who was traded to the Blue Jays last summer and got released by Toronto over the weekend. $11 million will be paid to James Shields, traded to the White Sox last year about a year and a half into a four-year contract signed with the Padres prior to the 2015 season.
The remaining $2 million will be paid to Jedd Gyorko, now a Cardinal coming off a 30-homer season in 2016. Yikes.
Digging into San Diego’s active roster, the Padres payroll situation is even more bizarre.Even though they’re paying just $2 million of his contract, the Padres will pay Gyorko more than all but three players on their 2017 roster – Wil Myers, Jered Weaver, and Yangervis Solarte. Myers is the team’s highest paid player at just $4.5 million, a hair above the MLB average salary of $4.47 million.
But wait, there’s more! Only ten Padres will make at least $1 million, which includes Christian Friedrich (at $1.79 million), who will start the season on the DL. More than half of the team’s roster will make under $600,000. For comparison’s sake, baseball’s minimum salary is $535,000, meaning that San Diego is paying 18 of the 31 players on their 25-man roster and the DL within 10% of the league minimum.
Comparing the Padres to other teams is just silly. The Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, Rangers, Royals, Orioles, and Angels each have a full dozen players on their active roster and DL making more than Myers, the Padres’ highest-paid player, while the Mariners have 13 making at least $4.5 million. Even the A’s, a fellow bastion of cheapness, have at least eight players making $4.5 million!
If there’s a bright side for Padres fans, it’s this – the team is investing in its future after spending a ridiculous amount of money on international players last summer. San Diego also has payroll flexibility, which you’d expect given their current situation. Just two players, Myers and Solarte, are guaranteed salaries for the 2018 season, and only eight players will be in line for arbitration raises next year. And hey, the Melvin Upton contract comes off the books too, so they’ll only be paying $20 million (for now) to players that aren’t Padres!
