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Last season according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Milwaukee Brewers opened the year with the league’s lowest payroll at just a shade under $64 mil. That figure was the lowest that the Brewers have seen since 2007 and was the first time the Opening Day payroll was below $80 mil since 2008.
One month ago, we posted our first projection for the Brewers' payroll in 2017. Since then, the Brewers have made several minor moves on the fringes of the roster that won't really affect the payroll outlook, but they also made the rather significant move of designating Chris Carter for assignment, effectively bringing his tenure in Milwaukee to an end and throwing out his projected $8.1 mil salary for 2017. In his stead, the Brewers have signed Eric Thames to a multi-year deal to play first base. With those moves in the books, here is what the payroll situation looks like as of today:
| Ryan Braun | $19,000,000 | Martin Maldonado | $1,600,000 | Junior Guerra | $507,500 | Tyler Thornburg | $2,200,000 |
| Keon Broxton | $507,500 | Eric Thames | $4,000,000 | Zach Davies | $507,500 | Carlos Torres | $2,000,000 |
| Domingo Santana | $507,500 | Scooter Gennett | $3,000,000 | Chase Anderson | $3,100,000 | Jimmy Nelson | $507,500 |
| Kirk Nieuwenhuis | $1,600,000 | Orlando Arcia | $507,500 | Matt Garza | $12,500,000 | Jhan Marinez | $507,500 |
| Michael Reed | $507,500 | Jonathan Villar | $507,500 | Wily Peralta | $4,400,000 | Tyler Cravy | $507,500 |
| Hernan Perez | $507,500 | Corey Knebel | $507,500 | ||||
| Yadiel Rivera | $507,500 | Jacob Barnes | $507,500 | ||||
| Andrew Susac | $507,500 | ||||||
| $22,122,500 | $11,137,500 | $20,507,500 | $6,737,500 |
Total: $60,505,000
There are a few caveats to this chart, of course:
- Ryan Braun ($4 mil) and Matt Garza ($2 mil) both have deferred money in their contract which will be paid out at a later date.
- Arbitration-eligible players Nieuwenhuis, Maldonado, Gennett, Anderson, Peralta, Thornburg, and Torres do not yet have their 2017 salaries officially set so the figures provided are projections from MLB Trade Rumors. Not all of these players are guaranteed to have their contracts tendered, either.
- The MLB league minimum is $507,500 and has been assigned to all pre-arbitration eligible players, though ultimately many of those players will make a small amount over the league minimum (for example, last season Jonathan Villar made $512,900).
- Pre-arb roster spots aren't set in stone, but they don't really affect the main topic of this post. So if you don't like Michael Reed or Tyler Cravy or whoever being on this list, swap them out for another pre-arb player. It won't affect the payroll projection.
Arbitration projections courtesy of MLB Trade Rumors