2011 Cubs Payroll

Updated on 3-27-2011

The Cubs have $106.3 million in guaranteed salary for 2011 so far.  They also have 6 more arbitration eligible players.  The Cubs already settled with Jeff Baker.  Garza is likely to get around $6 million, Soto about $3 million, Gorzelanny about $2, Marshall about $2, Marmol about $3 and Koyie Hill will probably get $1 million.  That’s $123.3 million.  That may be estimating on the low side.  It’s quite possible Garza gets $7 million while Soto gets about $4 and I could easily see Marshall getting $3 million while Marmol gets a bit more than that.  So just say $123-127 million plus the auto-renewal players plus the non-active players.  The auto-renewal players make league minimum, which is $400,000.  The Cubs have 7 spots open on the 25-man roster so at a minimum, that’s 7 auto-renewal players.  That’s a total of $2.8 million.  The non-active players make $50,000 and there are of course 15 of the.  That’s $.8  million.

The Cubs payroll as of today is between $127 and $132 million.

UPDATE, 1-12: Koyie Hill avoided arbitration by signing for $850,000.

UPDATE, 1-14: Geovany Soto avoided arbitration by signing for $3 million.

UPDATE, 1-18: Cubs traded Tom Gorzelanny on 1-17 for 3 prospects (Michael Burgess, A.J. Morris, and Graham Hicks), signed Sean Marshall to a 2-year deal for $4.7 million on 1-18 and also signed Matt Garza for 1 year and $5.95 million on the same day.

UPDATE, 2-14: Cubs signed Carlos Marmol to a 3-year contract for $20 million.  Analysis of the signing included looking at Hendry’s problems with signing relievers over the years, the Cubs expectation that he remain nearly as good as he’s been, a look at his FIP, ERA, SIERA and xFIP, and the present value of his contract.

UPDATE, 3-27: Carlos Silva did not make the opening day roster and will either be traded or released. It’s unlikely the Cubs find a taker for Silva so they’re going to be paying about $5.6 million assuming some team picks him up for cheap. If not, they’d pay $6 million.