The estimated 2011 Dodger payroll is approaching $110 million.
This includes deferred payments. Why does this include deferred payments (look over here to know what it means from the experts from the Best Toronto accounting) Because if you don’t include deferred payments, then you’re never accounting for those payments being made. The fact that some of those payments are going to players no longer on the team doesn’t mean they’re not part of the player payroll.
The Dodgers are paying Manny Ramirez this year, even though he is no longer part of the team. But it’s not like those payments shouldn’t count. Not only were they an investment in the 2009-10 pennant pursuits, they have an impact on what’s going on today.
We can debate endlessly about the wisdom of all Dodger contracts, but don’t let anyone try to tell you that the Dodger payroll is in the $90 million neighborhood right now. It’s simply not true.
Footnote: The Dodger 40-man roster needs to lose a player, or perhaps more accurately, the Dodgers need to tell us who they’ve dropped. There are currently 41 players listed.
| * | $25,500,000 | Starting pitchers (5) |
| $8,000,000 | Hiroki Kuroda | |
| $7,500,000 | Ted Lilly | |
| * | $6,000,000 | Chad Billingsley |
| $3,500,000 | Jon Garland | |
| * | $500,000 | Clayton Kershaw |
| * | $13,780,000 | Relief pitchers (7) |
| $7,000,000 | Jonathan Broxton | |
| * | $2,000,000 | Hong-Chih Kuo |
| $2,000,000 | Vicente Padilla | |
| $1,500,000 | Matt Guerrier | |
| * | $430,000 | Blake Hawksworth |
| * | $430,000 | Ronald Belisario |
| * | $420,000 | Kenley Jansen |
| Other pitchers on 40-man roster (9) | ||
| Scott Elbert | ||
| John Ely | ||
| Javy Guerra | ||
| Brent Leach | ||
| Jon Link | ||
| Carlos Monasterios | ||
| Travis Schlichting | ||
| Ramon Troncoso | ||
| Luis Vasquez | ||
| * | $46,620,000 | Starting lineup (8) |
| $12,000,000 | Rafael Furcal | |
| $9,250,000 | Andre Ethier | |
| $6,950,000 | Matt Kemp | |
| $5,250,000 | Casey Blake | |
| $5,000,000 | Juan Uribe | |
| * | $4,500,000 | James Loney |
| $3,250,000 | Rod Barajas | |
| * | $420,000 | Xavier Paul |
| * | $5,245,000 | Bench (5) |
| $2,500,000 | Jamey Carroll | |
| $1,000,000 | Dioner Navarro | |
| $675,000 | Tony Gwynn, Jr. | |
| $650,000 | Jay Gibbons | |
| * | $420,000 | Chin-Lung Hu |
| Other players on 40-man roster (7) | ||
| Ivan De Jesus | ||
| A.J. Ellis | ||
| Hector Gimenez | ||
| Jamie Hoffmann | ||
| John Lindsey | ||
| Russ Mitchell | ||
| Trayvon Robinson | ||
| * | $17,350,000 | Also paying |
| * | $7,700,000 | Manny Ramirez |
| $3,500,000 | Juan Pierre | |
| * | $3,375,000 | Andruw Jones |
| $1,500,000 | Jason Schmidt | |
| $1,000,000 | Vicente Padilla | |
| $150,000 | Brad Ausmus | |
| $125,000 | Octavio Dotel | |
| *Estimate | $108,495,000 | GRAND TOTAL |
Some of the above figures are estimates. Research for this chart was based in part on Cot’s Baseball Contracts and True Blue L.A.
