According to this they have Hamels at 20 million and Zobrist at 12.5, so 32.5 million. Bryants salary 12.9, he will be pushing 18 to 20 after AB, Baez will double his current 5,2 salary. Hendricks will be up from 7.9 to ten or eleven. All the rest of the young players will see their salaries go up, and the Cubs still have to find a pitcher to replace Hamels.
Where is the 90 to 100 million at, this is coming off the books?
https://www.usatoday.com/sports/mlb/cubs/salaries/all/player/all/
What I’m saying is we have 40-50 million in spending money. We have $90-100 million off the books because KB/arbitration eligible players will not have the same contracts next year.
Noteable guys off the books because of free agency:
Hamels - 20 million
Zobrist - 12.5 million
Morrow - 12 million
Cishek - 6.5 million
Strop - 6.25 million
Kintzler - 5 million
Duensing - 3.5 million
Then you have
Barnett - 3 million team option
Graveman - 3 million team option
That alone is roughly $70 million we have coming off as money we can spend on free agents or on contract extensions. I am optimistic because it can be argued over half of those guys have done little to contribute to this years team. We can afford a nice outfielder and a nice backend starting pitcher and still have plenty of money for extensions.
Say KB gets $19 million in arbitration after nearly $13 million this year. He’s only eating $6 million into the $70 million, because the $70 million coming off the books for free agents doesn’t include the $13 million he made this year.
KB, Schwarber, and Baez are combined throwing in a little over $20 million, however they will be taking more out.