There has been alot of talk lately about how the Tigers will have a significant amount of money to play with this offseason. Hefty contracts to players who haven’t been contributing do come off the books. However, it will cost the Tigers significantly more to keep their current players as many get raises or become arbitration eligible.
Damion Easley ($6.63 million), Matt Anderson ($4.3 million), and Danny Patterson ($2.8 million) make up about 20% of the Tigers’ payroll this year, and Danny Patterson is the only one to contribute anything. Add in a $500,000 buyout the Tigers made to Danny Patterson and that’s $14.23 million that Tigers can use to go out and get a front of the rotation pitcher or Carlos Beltran right? Not exactly.
Carlos Guillen is due for a $1.5 million raise next year. Actually, Guillen has already accrued enough plate appearances to garner $550,000 in incentives this year, and with another 75 plate apperances will gather another $350,000. Also, the Tigers will be paying Pudge an additional $2.9 million. Jason Johnson will get an additional $1 million next year, as will Urbina if the Tigers pick up his option (and it’s a $500,000 buyout if they don’t). Speaking of buyouts, to avoid paying Matt Anderson next year the Tigers have a $400,000 buyout on his option year. Setting aside Guillen’s incentive money, and assuming they pick up the option on Urbina, that’s $6.8 million eating into the FA money.
Then there is the case of the cheap young Tigers who won’t be cheap anymore. Mike Maroth, Alex Sanchez, Brandon Inge, Gary Knotts, Nate Cornejo, and Carlos Pena all become arbitration eligible I believe. Leaving out Cornejo who probably won’t be in line for a sizable raise those other 5 guys are significant contributors and make a combined $1.71 million. Now with Maroth there has been talk about him being dealt in the offseason. However, anybody taking his spot in the rotation will probably be making more than the $330,000 that he’s currently making. Alex Sanchez could be let go because the Tigers have a cheap option in Nook Logan. I don’t think uber-sub Inge is going anywhere, and he’s earned himself a raise next season.
As for Pena and Munson (Munson is also arb-eligible but is coming off a $1.5 million dollar contract already) the Tigers will have to pay a little bit more to keep both of them. Munson might get a little less, and Pena should get some more. However it appears that the Tigers (or Trammell) have given up on Munson completely. While Trammell has been playing the hot hands a lot lately, Munson has 18 AB’s since his two homer game on August 8th.
So while there are some large “dead” contracts coming off the books, and the Tigers will have a little more money to play with it will probably be more along the lines of $6-7 million instead for $14 million.
Now Mr. Illitch could always authorize Dombrowski to increase the payroll. That isn’t an unlikely scenario with the Tigers increase in revenue. Attendance should come in just under 2 million fans, which also brings in additional concession, parking, and merchandise dollars. Plus with the improved product on the field, and the fact that the Tigers season ticket holders are almost guaranteed to renew to get All Star tickets, the team can even raise ticket prices. TV ratings are up and commercial space is actually in demand which should result in a better contract next year.
Does this mean that the Tigers will be as agressive this year as last year? We can only hope. The difference is this year the Tigers won’t have to overbid just to get people to talk with them.
Miscellaneous:
-Thanks for your patience during this long blog drought. My move went well although we’re still not unpacked. At least I’ve had some time to watch the Tigers the last few nights.
-I have to say I was as thrilled as everyone with Jeremy Bonderman’s outing on Monday night. It ranked as the 9th best pitched game in the AL this year according to game scores. Remarkably, Tiger starters have 3 of the top 10 pitched games in the AL this year. Mike Maroth’s gem against the Yankees, and Jason Johnson’s duel with Johan Santana against the Twins are the others.
Excellent analysis and as usual, better than what you get in the dailys. What about Higginson’s contract? Doesn’t his salary decrease next year?
Thanks Nandito. There is actually some confusion about Bobby’s salary for next year. Several sites (like Dugout dollars) actually h ave him increasing to 11.85 next year. I did some research and I think the contract went 5 something the first year, 11.85 the second year, and then 8.85 each of the last two years. That would put the total value of the contract at about $34 million which was what was originally reported.
I have been under the impression Higgy’s money goes up next year, but no matter – we’ll get a corner outfielder that can’t slug .400.
Nice work, Billfer. Lets hope Ilitch loosens the purse strings enough to allow DD the necessary flexibility.