Few topics rile Cardinal Nation more than payroll. Some people feel Cardinals ownership has a lot of money so they should spend whatever it takes to field a championship team. Others appreciate the concept of a budget and judge players based on the salary they are making. With the recent releases of ex-Cardinals Matt Morris and Jim Edmonds, and the set-back of Mark Mulder (not to mention the large amount of other payroll on the disabled list), Cardinal payroll has once again become a very interesting topic.
Historically Cardinals ownership has done a great job with not wasting payroll (with the exception of Tino Martinez). They have shied away from long term contracts on pitchers. They have extended players before the player enters free agency at discounted rates. They have sold players on the great baseball city of St. Louis to get players to sign at a cheaper rate. However no matter how much energy is spent maximizing payroll, every team is due a year when payroll decisions catch up. This is the year for the Cardinals.
Here is the payroll the Cardinals have signed for this year and received absolutely zero contribution – not a single at bat or pitch from any of these guys:
Chris Carpenter $10,500,000
Mark Mulder $7,000,000
Juan Encarnacion $6,500,000
Scott Spiezio $2,300,000
Jim Edmonds $2,000,000
Matt Clement $1,250,000
Tyler Johnson $398,000
Josh Kinney $398,000
Total $30,388,000
That is more than 30% of the opening day payroll of $99,624,449. Carpenter and Johnson may make significant contributions this year. Some may still have hope for Mulder, Clement and Kinney this year. But all are pitchers and there is a significant chance none of them will contribute. And there is almost no chance any one of them will contribute in the first half of the season. Edmonds, Encarnacion, and Spiezio have most likely seen their last Cardinal at bats. When Bill DeWitt bought the Cardinals in 1995, their payroll was $30,956,000. It has to be driving the budget conscious DeWitt crazy knowing that he is not seeing any production from nearly the same amount of salary that fielded the entire 1995 Cardinal team.
In addition to the payroll that has contributed nothing, the Cardinals have two players who are playing significantly under their current contracts - Troy Glaus ($10,700,000 if you count the Toronto contribution of 1.8 million) and Jason Isringhausen (8 million to be a middle reliever).
Walt Jocketty had a great career as Cardinal General Manager, but he handed out some terrible contracts after the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006. His deals include Mark Mulder (2 years, $13 million), Jim Edmonds (2 years, 19 million), Adam Kennedy (3 years, 10 million), Scott Spiezio (2 years, 4.5 million) and even the signing of Chris Carpenter (5 years, 65 million) went against the company policy of giving long term contracts to pitchers. Even more confusing is that Chris Carpenter had two years left on his current deal. Also apparently Jocketty had a deadline deal in place for Matt Morris, which would have cost the Cardinals an additional $10 million this year.
Despite the amount of wasted salary on the books, the Cardinals are currently battling for first place. How are they doing it? Mostly by paying one of the most productive outfields in baseball a total of $2,536,000 for all five outfielders and paying the third best pitching staff in the National League only $16,937,500. Much thanks is owed to Adam Wainwright and his $687,500 salary.
I thought it would be interesting to compare the payroll of the Cardinals current lineup and current starting pitchers to other teams in the National League Central. Here are the rankings.
Starting Line-up Payroll:
1. Chicago Cubs $56,129,000
2. Houston Astros $51,703,414
3. St. Louis Cardinals $34,440,449
4. Cincinnati Reds $30,987,695
5. Pittsburgh Pirates $27,787,000
6. Milwaukee Brewers $20,700,000
Starting Pitching
1. Chicago Cubs $41,208,333
2. Milwaukee Brewers $23,730,000
3. St. Louis Cardinals $16,937,500
4. Houston Astros $16,652,000
5. Cincinnati Red $13,365,000
6. Pittsburgh Pirates $11,716,783
Typically the Cardinals are near the top of the division in payroll for both categories, but this year they are right in the middle of the pack. Cardinal fans may be able to sympathize a little with Pirate fans.
Of course the most exciting thing is that most of the payroll will come off the books after this year. Contracts for Cesar Izturis, Braden Looper, Kyle Lohse, Jason Isringhausen, Mark Mulder, Juan Encarnacion, Jim Edmonds, Scott Spiezio, Matt Clement, Russ Springer, Aaron Miles, Jason LaRue and Ron Villone expire at the end of this year and will free up $44,740,000. Of course there will be some raises in current year players, most notably Rick Ankiel. And there will be some important positions that need to be filled - shortstop, closer, at least one starting pitcher (assuming Chris Carpenter can be counted on), middle relievers, backup catcher, and utility infielders. However, some positions may be filled with minor leaguers like Chris Perez and Jason Motte (bullpen), Jaime Garcia (starting pitching), and Bryan Anderson (backup catcher). They would earn the minimum major league salary.
Free agency will have to fill the other holes. The most intriguing free agents
available are Rafael Furcal, A.J. Burnett (if he opts out like expected), Ben Sheets, and Francisco Rodriquez. How good would the Cardinals look with Furcal in the line-up leading off and Ben Sheets as the third starter behind Carpenter and Wainwright? It will be a very interesting off season for Bill DeWitt, who is one of the most cautious when it comes to handing out large free agent contracts. Cardinal Nation is aware of the payroll situation and will apply a lot of pressure on DeWitt to spend. It will be very interesting to see what he does.
Don’t care about money, feel free to send Bill an e-mail at obyrne@hughes.net.