$100 Millon Payroll?

by Phil Gurnee on Feb 28, 2009 7:44 PM PST in Payroll Comment 6 comments

As Eric shows in his payroll worksheet the Dodger payroll is currently at $87 Million. With the Dodger deferred contract details now public knowledge it looks like the Dodgers tried to add Manny to the payroll while keeping the payroll a tad under $100 Million.

Is $100 Million the new benchmark? Dodger fans have to find it curious that the Dodgers didn't accept the counter offer of Boras/Manny of the same money over two years but with none of it deferred. You would have thought they'd have accepted it instantly. It is certainly a reasonable offer and one would think with good reason, the only thing holding the Dodgers back from accepting it is the possible Dodgers inability to meet that payroll in 2009 at that level.

I'm not privy to the Dodger finances so maybe after five years of running the team they have found that $100 Million is the payroll amount they feel comfortable with. Or maybe it is a one year deal during this economy. If so, then Ned is the last person who should be building this team. After all the most important person to add to this team is Manny Ramirez not Mota, Blake, Hudson, or even Wolf. Wolf might be a bauble we can't afford if we need to fit Manny into this payroll.

Then again you can't leave all those holes on the team while waiting for Manny to make up his mind. However no one put a gun to Ned's head and said spend stupid money on G Mota when any number of minimum wage pitchers could his job. That would save 2.3 Million for Manny. Casey Blake was a nice addition in November but now looks like a useless part with the addition of Hudson. However Blake was signed long before players like Abreu were signing for $5 million. Furcal was a must addition to this team so that money has to be spent. Randy Wolf or Orlando Hudson are the final pieces. Wolf came in at $5 million this year and Hudson could be anywhere from $3 -8 Million.

So I ask you? If you need to build a team with a payroll under $100 Million why do you spend the money on Hudson or Wolf until you have Manny locked up? Without Manny you don't need Hudson because this team ain't going anywhere. Just like Manny Hudson was not being flooded with offers. If you can't afford Manny because you signed Hudson then you might want to re-think why it is that you felt you had to have Orlando Hudson.

This team can win the West with Manny in LF and DeWitt at 2nd. It can win the West with Manny in left field and any number of candidates manning Wolf's spot in the rotation. I don't think they can win the West with Pierre in LF, Hudson at 2nd, and Wolf in the rotation. Maybe then can, hopefully we won't find out.

If you can't afford Manny, then spend the $10 Million you can afford on Adam Dunn, add Hudson, and at least you have built a team that can do some damage. Trying to buy a 25 Millon dollar ballplayer for 10 million is a great ploy only if it works. If it doesn't you end up with what we currently have.

Usually after a post like this, the Dodgers will make it all moot and sign Manny while pushing the 2009 payroll above the 100 Million dollar mark.

If they don't then they went the wrong way about building this team.

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Gotta think a deal gets done

If the reports are true that the two sides are simply trying to find ways to pay $45 million, it seems silly that a deal couldn’t get done for a difference of $2 million or so (in NPV).

I bet a deal gets done somewhere in the middle, with the payout something like:

2009: $15m
2010: $12m
2011: $6m
2012: $6m
2013: $6m

If in fact $100m is the limit, then 2010 will be interesting because with Manny the payroll will be roughly $90m already, and I’ll believe the club will go with homegrown players in the 4/5 spots (following Bills/Kershaw/Kuroda) when I see it.

Also, factor in the incentives potentially due in 2009. There are 11 players on the 40-man roster with incentive clauses and if all are hit the total added to payroll will be $10,687,500. It’s not likely that all incentives will be hit (Ausmus PAs and Mota GFs are least likely) but it’s not out of the question that the payroll will increase by $7-8 million.

by Eric Stephen on Feb 28, 2009 8:13 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Think about this

Great article. Sometimes I think the dodgers don’t want manny. For some odd reason I think the McCourt’s just want to save face and make it look like they went after manny. It looks to me like they are just slow walking it so the fans won’t blame the owner.

by John23 on Feb 28, 2009 8:20 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Also

A statue of the fans will cost McCourt an awful lot of money, so there’s that. :)

by Eric Stephen on Feb 28, 2009 8:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

A Dream Deferred

You would think that if Scott/Manny had an issue with deferred money, and it’s been in every offer all along, it would have been brought up sooner…

by EthierIsBetterThanKemp on Mar 1, 2009 2:05 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

re:

They could not have deferred an arbitration settlement and I’d expect him to get his 25 million in that scenario. We don’t know what the other offers had in deferred money. Boras only brought up the deferred money after McCourt blasted them for saying no. Boras does not usually negotiate in the press but I think he had no choice when McCourt sounded off. I think Boras played a master stroke in his counter offer of accepting the same money with none deferred. If McCourt does not ante up he will lose the public opinion battle he cares about so deeply.

It will ring hollow all his comments that he had Manny money set aside and that Manny was priority number one if he does not go above 100 Million while a bunch of priority two players like Blake, Mota, Hudson, and Wolf inhabit the roster.

Patience is for those who die waiting for something to happen

by Phil Gurnee on Mar 1, 2009 8:01 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Mota

You would think the $2,350,000 going to Mota could have gone toward bringing back Beimel at least. From what I’ve heard, this is about the amount of money Beimel has been looking for.

by EthierIsBetterThanKemp on Mar 1, 2009 2:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs