We were talking yesterday about the Brewers' expensive bullpen, and I wondered if it was the priciest in baseball. Mom always told me the lawn wasn't going to cut itself, so I decided to run the numbers.
According to Cot's Baseball Contracts, the Brewers are second in bullpen spending, to the Yankees (surprise!). They're also one of only four teams with a bullpen budget in excess of $20 million:
- Yankees - $27.5M
- Rivera - $15M
- Farnsworth - $6M
- Hawkins - $3.75M
- Bruney - $750K
- Albaladejo, Chamberlain, Karstens, Ohlendorf, Traber - near min. (~$2M total)
- Brewers - $26.98M
- Gagne - $10M
- Riske - $4M
- Torres - $3.33M
- Mota, Turnbow - $3.2M
- Shouse - $2M
- McClung - $750K
- Choate - $500K
- Angels - $22.1M
- Rodriguez - $10M
- Shields, Speier - $4.25M
- Oliver - $2M
- Bootcheck, Bulger, O'Day, Thompson - near min. (~$1.6M total)
- Mets - $20.78M
- Wagner - $10.5M
- Schoeneweis - $3.6M
- Sosa - $2M
- Heilman, Wise - $1.2M
- Feliciano - $1.025
- Sanchez - $850K
- Smith - near min. (~$400K)
Of course, spending a lot on your bullpen isn't necessarily a negative; wins are what's important (it's not my money). To that end, I added up the WXRL that the top five relievers in each bullpen are projected to accrue:
- Yankees - 7.5
- Chamberlain - 3.0*
- Rivera - 2.9
- Farnsworth - 1.0
- Hawkins - 0.3
- Traber - 0.3
- Red Sox - 7.1
- Papelbon - 3.8
- Okajima - 1.1
- Delcarmen - 1.0
- Tavarez - 0.7
- Timlin - 0.5
- Dodgers - 6.7
- Saito - 2.5
- Broxton - 1.9
- Kuo - 1.1
- Beimel - 0.6
- Proctor - 0.6
- Brewers - 4.2**
- Gagne - 1.8
- Riske - 0.9
- Torres - 0.6
- Shouse - 0.5
- Turnbow - 0.4
*Chamberlain is projected as a starter, so I just arbitrarily assigned him 3.0 WXRL (which would be the #6 total in all of baseball). Hey, this is science, people.
**Mota is projected at 0.3 WXRL.