Baltimore Orioles: The Dollars Don’t Make Sense

Sep 18, 2015; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones (10) at bat against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

In order to properly look at free agents, trade options, etc, one has to look at the finances for the Baltimore Orioles.

As of right now, only four players are technically under contract for the Orioles. Adam Jones is owed $16.33 million in 2016, Matt Wieters $15.8 million, Ubaldo Jimenez $13 million and J.J. Hardy $12.5 million.

For those who aren’t accelerated mathematicians, that is $57.66 million dollars. Next, you have to factor in all the arbitration-eligible players.

Those players, and projected amounts per baseball-reference.com, are:

• Zach Britton – $6.9 million
• Chris Tillman – $6.2 million
• Manny Machado – $5.9 million
• Miguel Gonzalez – $4.9 million
• Brian Matusz – $3.4 million
• Vance Worley – $2.7 million
• Ryan Flaherty – $1.5 million
• Brad Brach – $1.1 million
• Nolan Reimold – $0.9 million
• David Lough – $0.8 million
• Paul Janish – $0.6 million

This is a total of $34.9 million, bringing the roster to an estimated $92.56 million. All of 15 players. Next is those players who are not yet arbitration-eligible.

This includes everyone else on the O’s 40-man roster.

Total cost now is right around $8 million.

Let’s say, for simplicity sake that the team sits at $100 million.

In 2015, the total payroll was around $110 million. Obviously, the team has a lot of holes for another $9 million.

So, as Peter Angelos has expressed a willingness to spend more, the favorable MASN decision, Dan Duquette repeatedly saying the team will have more to spend, let’s give the Orioles a budget of $130 million for 2016.

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That leaves around $30 million for the Orioles to spend.

Now, let’s review the team’s needs. Starting pitching, first base, outfield, and relief pitching are the needs.

Note, I put starting pitching first, because as always, I think it is all about starting pitching.

If the team was to try to only bring back Chris Davis, Steve Pearce and Darren O’Day, it would probably put the team around $35 million. Davis looks to get at least $20 million a year, I estimated $22 million a year. O’Day will likely get between eight and nine million dollars a year, and Pearce around four to five million. Altogether, you get close to $35 million.

This is not going to happen, unless Angelos opens the wallet really wide. And, it doesn’t address the starting pitching at all.

So, as I have alluded to in several posts, the team needs to get creative for next season.

Next: Reasons to stay away from Ryan Howard

Tomorrow, I will analyze exactly how the Orioles can fill their needs with the $30 million available, assuming they make no trades. It will involve a couple different groups of decisions.

It may not be an easy exercise, but it is possible.