The Seattle Mariners 2019 Offseason Primer

Assessing the Payroll

Guaranteed Money

As things currently stand, the Mariners have roughly $122.5 million committed to:

• Felix Hernandez – $27,857,143
• Robinson Cano – $24,000,000
• Kyle Seager – $19,500,000
• Mike Leake – $16,000,000 ($5,000,000 to be paid by STL)
• Jean Segura – $14,850,000
• Dee Gordon – $13,300,000
• Juan Nicasio – $9,250,000
• Wade LeBlanc – $2,750,000

Add in Denard Span’s $4 million buyout and we’re up to a guaranteed $126.5 million.

Arbitration Projections

On the non-guaranteed side of things, nine players qualify for salary arbitration this offseason with Edwin Diaz missing the Super Two cutoff by just a couple of weeks (phew!).

Here they are listed with their projected salaries per MLB Trade Rumors:

• James Paxton – $9,000,000
• Alex Colome – $7,300,000
• Erasmo Ramirez – $4,400,000
• Mike Zunino – $4,200,000
• Nick Vincent – $3,500,000
• Justin Grimm – $1,600,000
• Chris Herrmann – $1,500,000
• Ryan Cook – $1,000,000
• Roenis Elias – $1,000,000

If all are tendered contracts, these players project to earn $33.5 million in total, meaning that if all are retained, the Mariners figure to have $160 million penciled in for 2019.

This is already quite close to the hypothetical budget; however, not everyone is certain to come back and the organization can shed other obligations or increase the payroll altogether.