Found this pretty interesting. 1) Dodgers $242,065,828 2) Yankees $201,539,699 3) Red Sox $199,805,178 4) Tigers $199,750,600 5) Blue Jays $177,795,368 6) Rangers $175,909,063 7) Giants $172,354,611 8) Cubs 172,189,880 9) Nationals $167,846,918 10) Orioles $163,676,616 11) Angels $160,375,333 12) Mets $155,187,460 13) Mariners $154,268,842 14) Cardinals $151,680,000 15) Royals $140,925,250 16) Rockies $130,963,571 17) Indians $124,861,165 18) Astros $124,343,900 19) Braves $112,437,541 20) Marlins $111,881,100 21) Phillies $111,378,000 22) Twins $108,077,500 23) Pirates $100,575,946 24) White Sox $99,096,770 25) Reds $93,768,785 26) DBacks $93,257,600 27) A's $81,738,333 28) Padres $71,624,400 29) Rays $69,962,532 30) Brewers $63,061,300
Not that their payroll would be considered small with these omissions but they still have 21 mill on the books this year for A Rod and 5.5 for McCann.
Looking at that Houston should still have some room to add over the next few years. No reason at all they can't maintain a payroll ranked 10-15 in the league, especially if they become a perennial playoff team. How I'd spend it: 1. Extend Altuve to make him an Astro for life. 2. Participate in the 2023 Correa sweepstakes. 3. Continue to sign as many 2nd tier free agents as needed to fill roster holes. 4. Offer Marwin an extension. That said, those numbers may be slightly misleading since they don't capture front office salaries, player development costs, or amateur signing bonuses. I suspect Houston spends more than most on those areas. But they should still have some room to add.
Astros will have 9 guys in arbitration next year with only 2 free agents. Without looking at numbers too closely, I would guess that would put them close to the top 15.
The payroll will continue to rise organically with arb raises. Having Beltran's salary come off the books will help though. It'd be interesting to see what the numbers are like on non-player salary costs. The current state of the game says you have to do all those things just to be an average club. We definitely don't consistently spend the most on amateur signings.
Non-MLB player salaries this year will be 2.075 million for buried minor league salaries (e.g. Singleton), Rule 4 Draft Slot Space plus 5% (or whatever it is not to incur penalty), Luis Robert's salary, and let's say about 2 million dollars for low round pick and international guys without slot money (probably less). I think that covers it, but probably missing something.
I was thinking more along the lines of salaries of FO guys (do they have 1 stats guy or 10, 2 video guys or 12, etc), scouts (1 scout for 5 states vs 5 scouts for one state), and minor league coaches. I know the dodgers have something like 5 former GM's in their front office in addition to their current GM. With all the regulations coming down on how much you can spend in the amateur draft and (in the future) international market, spending on non-player salaries are going to continue to skyrocket as an avenue where a financial advantage can be leveraged.
Rough numbers I have them projected to ~$125M next year without adding anyone or resigning their FA. Springer, Marwin, Keuchel, McHugh, McCullers, and Giles will get raises, but they have $28M coming off the books between Beltran, Gregerson, and Aoki. I wouldn't expect Marisnick or Fiers to get big bumps and Harris and Gattis have signed thru next year. $125M will probably rank between 17th and 22nd next year. They can probably replace Beltran (Reed), Aoki (Fisher), and Gregerson (Paulino) internally, but I would be surprised if they didn't add a SP, and there is always the possibility of an extension for one of their current players.
Luhnow is at a point now where he can be selective with the additions he makes adding solid competitive smart experienced vets to serve as stop gaps (McCann, Reddick, Aoki, Beltran, Yuri, Morton, etc) while you be patient in the development of Martes, K Tucker, F. Perez, Reed, Whitley, Fisher) and allowing Devo, Feliz, Bregman, Musgrove, Peacock the time to develop in the big leagues as it is showing signs of paying off (I remember when Springer would hit under .200 for a season and whiff 90+ times a year and Keuchel had a high 4-5 ERA) surround around a core five of Keuchel, Altuve, Springer; (Correa & McCullers still 5+ years of club control). Smart move is filling out role players with cheap contracts in the form of top prospects. Would look to find more depth in any area I can possibly improve. Beltran is first on my list to re-sign. I let Gregerson walk. Top 5 FA's too take a flyer on are Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, Wade Davis, John Lackey & Jake Arrieta. Chris Tillman possibly.
I wonder what he would need for an extension. $10M/year for 3-4 years? Ben Zobrist is most recent FA I can think of that is similar, though Zobrist was a better offensive player by a pretty decent margin, but he was also 34 going on 35, while Marwin will be 30. That 5 year age gap could certainly make the difference.
GM salaries are between 1-3 million. I have a hard time seeing all baseball operation salaries giving teams too much of an edge as I expect each additional analyst adds less incremental value. I've heard several times that so many people want to work in baseball that it drives the costs down for everyone but the top guys. Regarding Astros, I've heard the Astros are one of the teams that scout the lower levels very well and are causing other teams to scout them more. Scouting costs don't worry me. Things that would worries me is if some team is spending a ton of money on injury research or makeup issues of players. A team would reap a big advantage if it figures out a way to predict pitching injuries more accurately or what makeup issues predict on-field performance more accurately.
I think $24M/3yr on top of the deal he already has should be enough. That would take him through 2021, which would be his age 32 season. I wouldn't want to give him much more than that. Maybe a vesting/club option for a 4th year with a big bump; something like $14M vesting at 600 PA.
