Since the 2012 season is coming to a close soon I figured it might be a good idea to look and see what the Cubs have on their books next year as far as player salaries go. This post will be updated and available on the menu. Here you go.
| Pitchers | DOB | B/T | Ht/Wt | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Jeff Beliveau | 01/17/87 | L-L | 6'1"/195 | ||||||||
| Michael Bowden | 09/09/86 | R-R | 6’3”/215 | ||||||||
| Jacob Brigham | 02/10/88 | R-R | 6’3”/210 | ||||||||
| Alberto Cabrera | 10/25/88 | R-R | 6’4”/210 | ||||||||
| Shawn Camp | 11/18/75 | R-R | 6’0”/205 | ||||||||
| Lendy Castillo | 04/08/89 | S-R | 6’1”/170 | ||||||||
| Jaye Chapman | 05/22/87 | R-R | 6’0”/195 | ||||||||
| Casey Coleman | 07/03/87 | L-R | 6’0”/185 | ||||||||
| Gerardo Concepcion 1 | 02/29/92 | L-L | 6’2”/180 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | ||||
| Manuel Corpas | 12/03/82 | R-R | 6’3”/210 | ||||||||
| Rafael Dolis | 01/10/88 | R-R | 6’4”/215 | ||||||||
| Matt Garza | 11/26/83 | R-R | 6’4”/215 | Arb. 4 | |||||||
| Justin Germano | 08/06/82 | R-R | 6’2”/210 | ||||||||
| Carlos Marmol | 10/14/82 | R-R | 6’2”/215 | 9.8 | |||||||
| Marcos Mateo | 04/18/84 | R-R | 6’1”/220 | ||||||||
| Blake Parker | 06/19/85 | R-R | 6’3”/225 | ||||||||
| Brooks Raley | 06/29/88 | L-L | 6’3”/185 | ||||||||
| Chris Rusin | 10/22/86 | L-L | 6’2”/195 | ||||||||
| James Russell | 01/08/86 | L-L | 6’4”/200 | Arb. 1 | |||||||
| Jeff Samardzija | 01/23/85 | R-R | 6’5”/225 | Arb. 1 | |||||||
| Miguel Socolovich | 07/24/86 | R-R | 6’1”/190 | ||||||||
| Arodys Vizcaino | 11/13/90 | R-R | 6’0”/190 | ||||||||
| Chris Volstad | 09/23/86 | R-R | 6’8”/230 | Arb. 2 | |||||||
| Travis Wood | 02/06/87 | R-L | 5’11”/175 | ||||||||
| Catchers | DOB | B/T | Ht/Wt | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Welington Castillo | 04/24/87 | R-R | 5’10”/210 | ||||||||
| Steve Clevenger | 04/05/86 | L-R | 6’0”/195 | ||||||||
| Anthony Recker | 08/29/83 | R-R | 6’2”/240 | ||||||||
| Infielders | DOB | B/T | Ht/Wt | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Darwin Barney | 11/08/85 | R-R | 5’10”/185 | ||||||||
| Adrian Cardenas | 10/10/87 | L-R | 6’0”/205 | ||||||||
| Starlin Castro 2 | 03/24/90 | R-R | 6’0”/190 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 16 |
| Junior Lake | 03/27/90 | R-R | 6’2”/215 | ||||||||
| Anthony Rizzo | 08/08/89 | L-L | 6’3”/220 | ||||||||
| Ian Stewart | 04/05/85 | L-R | 6’3”/215 | ||||||||
| Luis Valbuena | 11/30/85 | L-R | 5’10”/195 | ||||||||
| Josh Vitters | 08/27/89 | R-R | 6’2”/200 | ||||||||
| Outfielders | DOB | B/T | Ht/Wt | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Tony Campana | 05/30/86 | L-L | 5’8”/185 | ||||||||
| David DeJesus 3 | 12/20/79 | L-L | 5’11”/190 | 4.25 | 6.5 | ||||||
| Brett Jackson | 08/02/88 | L-R | 6’2”/210 | ||||||||
| Bryan LaHair | 11/05/82 | L-R | 6’5”/240 | ||||||||
| Joe Mather | 07/23/82 | R-R | 6’4”/215 | ||||||||
| Dave Sappelt | 01/02/87 | R-R | 5’9”/193 | ||||||||
| Jorge Soler 4 | 02/25/92 | R-R | 6’3”/205 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Alfonso Soriano | 01/07/76 | R-R | 6’1”/195 | 18 | 18 | ||||||
| Matthew Szczur | 07/20/89 | R-R | 6’1”/195 |
Notes
1: Concepcion received a $3 million signing bonus and the other $3 million is spread evenly over the 5-year contract
2: Castro received a $6 million signing bonus. If the 2020 option is declined the Cubs would pay a $1 million buyout.
3: If DeJesus' 2014 option for $6.5 million is declined by the Cubs, there would be a $1.5 million buyout for the team.
4: Soler receieved a $6 million signing bonus, half of which has been paid and the other half due by 1/13/13. He can opt out and become arbitration eligible if or when that happens.
The Cubs have $41 million on the books for 6 players, two of which won't be at the big league level.
Arbitration
Russell and Samardzija are first year arbitration eligible. Russell has been making near league minimum and I figure Sean Marshall is a good place to start to estimate what Russell will earn next year. Marshall was eligible for the first time entering 2010 and he signed for $0.95 million. Marshall has been worth an average WAR (fWAR, rWAR, WARP) in 2008 and 2009 of 1.1 per year. Russell's average WAR over the last 2 seasons hasn't even been close (about .3). James Russell is no Sean Marshall, but I don't think anybody thought that anyway. However, being first year eligible it's not like Russell is going to receive a whole lot less than $1 million. In fact, I'm just going to pencil him in for $1 million because it makes it easier. Realistically I'd guess $.75 million, but I'm rounding up.
Samardzija is making $2.64 million and he's not even arbitratione eligible. He will be next year and this will be interesting. Based on his performance over the last two years he might get $1.5 million, but he's not going to see a paycut of over $1 million. He won't see his salary decline at all and it will almost certainly increase. How much? It's hard to say. I can't think of a similar player, but I'll estimate $4 million, which is a crazy amount to earn in the first year of eligibility. If he's any good after this year that amound will only increase. Garza only got $3.3 million in his first year and he had a better track record than Samardzija.
Volstad is eligible for the second time. He made $2.67 million in 2012 so will probably see that increase to about $3 million even though he hasn't been any good.
Garza is eligible for his final time and earned $9.5 million in 2012. He will enter discussions with the Cubs having been on the disabled list for a couple months with an arm injury and his season hasn't been anywhere near as good as it was in his first with the Cubs. He'll still get an increase, but it won't be much. Let's go with $10.5 million. The Cubs would liked to have traded Garza at the deadline, but his injury didn't allow that to happen. The Cubs more than likely won't be able to trade him this offseason. Who is going to acquire a pitcher who is going to be making $10 milion or more and has been on the DL for 2 months? Other than the Dodgers! The Cubs will instead hope he's healthy and proves he can still be a valuable starter at which point he's likely to be dealt at the deadline next year.
The total value in arbitration salaries is about $18.5 million. Added up, that's $59.5 million paid to 10 players and two of them are in the minor leagues.
Auto-Renewal
Those on the active roster who aren't eligible for free agency or arbitration have their contracts automatically renewed each year and they make the league minimum. That's about $500,000. The Cubs currently have 7 players on the 25-man roster for next year so even if they signed no free agents you'd have to add 18 league minimum guys to the payroll just to get the minimum amount the Cubs figure to pay their players next year. Now we're up to $68.5 million.
Obviously the Cubs can and will replace some of these spots with free agents.
40-Man
These are the guys on the 40-man roster, but not on the active roster. This adds up to less than $1 million.
Total
As of September 2, 2012 the Cubs have approximately $69.5 million in salary for the 2013 season. The Cubs payroll for 2012 was $108.9 million and I don't see how that doesn't go down next year.
Huh, I thought the Cubs were on the hook for two more years of White Castle
BerseliusQuote Reply
Aren’t the Cubs paying 2013 money for anyone they’ve cut or traded?
Gee, this looks great for the Cubs. Way better than the 2013 Free Agent class. (Though there are some serviceable #3 starters.)
SVBQuote Reply
@ SVB:
I think Z is off the books and he waived his option to be traded. Silva’s done, Pena’s done, Byrd’s done. Not sure if part of the Maholm trade included the Cubs giving the Braves money to cover the option for next season. But I think MB covered everything.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
It’s insane how little money the Cubs have committed longterm. At least they’re flexible for the time being.
AndCountingQuote Reply
@ AndCounting:
Aren’t they going to have to re-sign a lot of these guys? I’d like it if they stayed flexible like this for a while, but there just aren’t a lot of free agent options. I’m really interested to see what they do.
joshQuote Reply
@ AndCounting:
Things are looking up! (insert unicorn)
@ josh:
Isn’t that overed in the auto-renewal? Yeh we definitely will have other salaries to pick up but te minimum payroll it can be is 69.5 mil
WaLiQuote Reply
Jorge Soler killed a baseball tonight. This is from CSN. Harry Pav is downloading his video now.
http://www.csnchicago.com/baseball-chicago-cubs/cubs-talk/bfont-color–blueWATCHbfont-Soler-has-bi?blockID=767107&feedID=10336&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
Aisle424Quote Reply
Shane Victorino as a Dodger makes me doubt the supposed infallibility of reality itself.
joshQuote Reply
WaLi wrote:
@ josh:
Isn’t that overed in the auto-renewal? Yeh we definitely will have other salaries to pick up but te minimum payroll it can
I have to admit I didn’t read every word. Okay, yeah, I’m just saying the flexibility is good, but there’s not much to spend it on, and I wish there was. But maybe there will be surprises. My guess is that we’ll have a roster of David DeJesus (bad last year, potential bounce-back candidates this year) type guys.
joshQuote Reply
Rumors swirling that Bobby V is getting the axe soon
BerseliusQuote Reply
Video from HP
http://www.telly.com/NB8XB?fromtwitvid=1
BerseliusQuote Reply
Here’s another one
http://bornonthird.mlblogs.com/2012/09/02/heres-jorge-solers-monster-shot-video/
BerseliusQuote Reply
Berselius wrote:
I loved his play-by-play. “Oh my! Holy Crap!”
I was up on the concourse about even with 3rd base watching and the only thing I couldn’t tell from that angle was fair or foul. He murdered it. He also threw a ball back to the infield that made Harry and I look at each other, like, “Did you see his arm?”
That kid is fucking good.
Aisle424Quote Reply
Somebody told Harry that the Soler shot looked like it went further than Baez’s monster shot to left-center earlier this year.
Aisle424Quote Reply
im pretty sure we pay the Carlos Silva contract for the next two decades
dylanjQuote Reply
dylanj wrote:
Also, we may or may not still be paying Aramis Ramirez, but we’ll never know since his contract was lost in the Well of Souls.
Aisle424Quote Reply
Small sample sizes rule, despite what MB says. It is proven below.
SVBQuote Reply
Here you go, Maybe some of you guys can make $100:
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/08/29/professor-turns-himself-liberal
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
My guess is you don’t even have to be THAT liberal to qualify.
joshQuote Reply
Facepalmed: http://obstructedview.net/chicago-cubs/daily-facepalm-labor-day-miracle-edition.html
AndCountingQuote Reply
@ SVB:
Soto was the only player traded that had an extra contract year. he was making under 5 million i believe and Texas might eat some cash if they cant find a player to be named later.
Xavier RiceQuote Reply