MLB Free Agency Dollars to Date

by
December 21, 2010

I had hoped to report out on MLB’s end-of-year player payrolls for 2010 (here’s last year’s), but the numbers haven’t been released yet. Instead, here are the free agency dollars spent to date this off-season, which includes total dollars as well as salary for 2010

PLAYER POSITION 2010 TEAM 2011 TEAM TOTAL DOLLARS 2011 SALARY
Jeremy Accardo RP Toronto Baltimore $1,080,000 $1,080,000
Rod Barajas C LA Dodgers LA Dodgers $3,250,000 $3,250,000
Joaquin Benoit RP Tampa Bay Detroit $16,500,000 $5,500,000
Lance Berkman RF NY Yankees St. Louis $8,000,000 $8,000,000
Henry Blanco C NY Mets Arizona $1,250,000 $1,250,000
Geoff Blum 3B Houston Arizona $2,700,000 $1,350,000
John Buck C Toronto Florida $18,000,000 $4,500,000
Pat Burrell LF San Francisco San Francisco $1,000,000 $1,000,000
Miguel Cairo 3B Cincinnati Cincinnati $2,000,000 $1,000,000
D.J. Carrasco RP Arizona NY Mets $2,500,000 $1,200,000
Randy Choate RP Tampa Bay Florida $2,500,000 $1,000,000
Jose Contreras RP Philadelphia Philadelphia $5,500,000 $2,500,000
Kevin Correia SP San Diego Pittsburgh $8,000,000 $3,000,000
Jesse Crain RP Minnesota Chicago Sox $13,000,000 $4,000,000
Carl Crawford LF Tampa Bay Boston $142,000,000 $14,000,000
Jack Cust LF Oakland Seattle $2,500,000 $2,500,000
Jorge De La Rosa SP Colorado Colorado $21,500,000 $9,500,000
Matt Diaz OF Atlanta Pittsburgh $4,250,000 $2,000,000
Scott Downs RP Toronto LA Angels $15,000,000 $5,000,000
Adam Dunn 1B Washington Chicago Sox $56,000,000 $12,000,000
Edwin Encarnacion 1B Oakland Toronto $2,500,000 $2,500,000
Pedro Feliciano RP NY Mets NY Yankees $8,000,000 N/A
Jon Garland SP San Diego LA Dodgers $5,000,000 $5,000,000
Matt Guerrier RP Minnesota LA Dodgers $12,000,000 $1,500,000
Tony Gwynn OF San Diego LA Dodgers $675,000 $675,000
Bill Hall LF Boston Houston $3,250,000 $3,250,000
Aaron Harang SP Cincinnati San Diego $4,000,000 $4,000,000
Ramon Hernandez C Cincinnati Cincinnati $3,000,000 $3,000,000
Aubrey Huff 1B San Francisco San Francisco $22,000,000 $10,000,000
Bobby Jenks RP Chicago Sox Boston $12,000,000 N/A
Derek Jeter SS NY Yankees NY Yankees $51,000,000 $15,000,000
Paul Konerko 1B Chicago Sox Chicago Sox $37,500,000 $12,000,000
Hiroki Kuroda SP LA Dodgers LA Dodgers $12,000,000 $12,000,000
Gerald Laird C Detroit St. Louis $1,000,000 $1,000,000
Cliff Lee SP Texas Philadelphia $120,000,000 $11,000,000
Russell Martin C LA Dodgers NY Yankees $4,000,000 $4,000,000
Victor Martinez C Boston Detroit $50,000,000 $12,000,000
Hideki Matsui LF LA Angels Oakland $4,250,000 $4,250,000
Melvin Mora 3B Colorado Arizona $2,000,000 $2,000,000
Dustin Moseley SP NY Yankees San Diego $900,000 $900,000
Xavier Nady RF Chicago Cubs Arizona $1,750,000 $1,750,000
Dioner Navarro C Tampa Bay LA Dodgers $1,000,000 $1,000,000
Tsuyoshi Nishioka 2B Japan Minnesota $9,000,000 $3,000,000
Miguel Olivo C Toronto Seattle $7,000,000 N/A
Magglio Ordonez RF Detroit Detroit $10,000,000 $10,000,000
Lyle Overbay 1B Toronto Pittsburgh $5,000,000 $5,000,000
Vicente Padilla SP LA Dodgers LA Dodgers $2,000,000 $2,000,000
Ronny Paulino C Florida NY Mets $1,300,000 $1,300,000
Carlos Pena 1B Tampa Bay Chicago Cubs $10,000,000 $10,000,000
Jhonny Peralta SS Detroit Detroit $11,250,000 $5,250,000
Joel Peralta RP Washington Tampa Bay $950,000 $950,000
A.J. Pierzynski C Chicago Sox Chicago Sox $8,000,000 $2,000,000
J.J. Putz RP Chicago Sox Arizona $10,000,000 $4,000,000
Mariano Rivera RP NY Yankees NY Yankees $30,000,000 $15,000,000
Ryan Rowland-Smith SP Seattle Houston $725,000 $725,000
George Sherrill RP LA Dodgers Atlanta $1,200,000 $1,200,000
Hisanori Takahashi SP NY Mets LA Angels $8,000,000 $3,800,000
Miguel Tejada SS San Diego San Francisco $6,500,000 $6,500,000
Yorvit Torrealba C San Diego Texas $6,250,000 $3,000,000
Matt Treanor C Texas Texas $850,000 $850,000
Koji Uehara RP Baltimore Baltimore $3,000,000 $3,000,000
Juan Uribe 2B San Francisco LA Dodgers $21,000,000 $5,000,000
Jason Varitek C Boston Boston $2,000,000 $2,000,000
Javier Vazquez SP NY Yankees Florida $7,000,000 $7,000,000
Jayson Werth OF Philadelphia Washington $126,000,000 $10,000,000
Jake Westbrook SP St. Louis St. Louis $16,500,000 $8,000,000
Ty Wigginton 3B Baltimore Colorado $8,000,000 $4,000,000
Kerry Wood RP NY Yankees Chicago Cubs $1,500,000 $1,500,000

NOTE:

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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, as well as a contributor to FanGraphs and Forbes SportsMoney. He is available for freelance and looks forward to your comments.

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Darren
13 years ago

And the dollars per WAR is?

-2
CircleChange11
13 years ago
Reply to  Darren

… seemingly highly dependent on the player’s expected WAR. Lower WAR guys are available on the cheap ($/WAR).

If my counting is right, something like 42 guys on the list ned to put up 1 WAR or less to “earn their contract” (Assuming ~5M/WAR).

It appears that we’re seeing a “class system” in terms of $/WAR. The higher end guys are costing more per WAR than the lower end guys.

0
TMorgan
13 years ago
Reply to  CircleChange11

Wouldn’t it work better to say it is something closer to 4M/WAR+1M? I mean most of the players making under $2M really look like their true talent level is below half a win. Also the top end players are getting closer to 4M/WAR even though all of the 1 win pitchers are making 5M/year.

0
CircleChange11
13 years ago
Reply to  CircleChange11

Yeah, I might have that one turned around.

0