This isn’t a Gordo cash flow story about the Cubs being cheap on payroll, nor is it a judgement on Theo/Jed’s fiduciary prowess. Baseball salaries are weird things because the final figures depend on more than just performance. Service time, the market at the time of the contract, and even past salary all play a role, but when you look at a list of individual contracts on a team for an individual year, some weird things are out there. I was looking at the Cubs page of Cot’s Baseball Contracts yesterday and found these to be interesting.
10) Alfonso Soriano is the highest paid player on the Cubs’ payroll. Even though he plays for the Yankees and they are paying $5 million of his salary, that leaves $14 million for the Cubs to pay.
9) Edwin Jackson ($13 million) is the highest paid Cubs player and he makes more than twice the next highest paid player. When you consider that Jackson is basically the Cubs’ #5 starter right now, that’s crazy to think about.
8) Jason Hammel ($6 million) is the next highest paid Cubs player. I know he’s earning it this year, but if you didn’t know about the Cubs’ payroll at all coming in to this season and you had to guess a player that would be the 2nd highest paid player on the team, there is no damn way you pick Jason Hammel.
7) Justin Grimm + Hector Rondon + Pedro Strop + Nail Ramirez + Brian Schlitter + James Russell + Wesley Wright total salaries = $6,574,500.
Jose Veras + Kyuji Fujikawa total salaries = $8,350,000
6) Minor leaguers Gerardo Concepcion and Jorge Soler ($3,866,667) make almost as much money as Welington Castillo, John Baker, Ryan Sweeney, Mike Olt, and Junior Lake combined ($3,910,000).
5) Anthony Rizzo ($1,535,714) is the 16th highest paid and has the highest value for a position player at $639,880 per fWAR.
4) Jake Arrieta ($544,500) is the 23rd highest paid and has the highest value for a pitcher at $363,000 per fWAR.
3) Jose Veras ($3,850,000) is the highest paid pitcher with negative fWAR, James Russell ($1,775,000) is the highest paid remaining pitcher with negative fWAR. Actually, Russell is the only remaining pitcher that has been below replacement level and he’s at -.1.
2) Nate Schierholtz ($5,000,000) is the highest paid position player with negative fWAR. Not surprisingly, there are many negative fWAR position players.
1) Even with pay increases coming in the next two years for Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo, Edwin Jackson ($13,000,000 x 2 = $26,000,000) will make more than both of them combined in 2015 and 2016 ($12,143,000 + $13,143,000 = $25,286,000).