Dodgers Salary Obligations

Updated March 26, 2019

Most of the salary information is from COTS.  The bWAR is Wins Above Replacement from Baseball Reference. Players like Cody Bellinger and Walker Buehler are not on this list as they are all making around the league minimum for 2019.  AAV is the Average Annual Value and is what is used to calculate the salaries for luxury tax purposes. The note that contains “inc.” is because some players have incentives in their contract that will be added as the season progresses.

The “Amount Under Threshold” is the amount before tax penalties begin. The “Amount Under Pick Penalty” is the amount before they start losing draft positions.

Contract Incentives

Kenta Maeda:

• $150K per year for making the opening day roster
• $250K for innings pitched at the 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190 and 200 marks
• $1M for games started at the 15, 20, 25, 30 and 32 marks

Clayton Kershaw:

• $1M for games started at 24, 26, 28 and 30 marks
• $1.5M for Cy Young with $500K for 2nd or 3rd place finish

The Competitive Balance Tax

Here is a quick summary of how the competitive balance tax works:

• The thresholds for being taxed for the duration of the CBA are:
  • 2019: $206 million
  • 2020: $208 million
  • 2021: $210 million
• There are various penalties for exceeding the CBT that begin at 20%. The number changes based on the number of consecutive years the threshold is exceeded.
• The penalties reset when a team stays under the threshold.
• A team that exceeds the threshold by $40 million or more are penalized in the draft. A team not in the top 6 of the draft will have their first pick moved back 10 spots.
• Penalties are calculated based on the Average Annual Value (AAV) of a multi-year contract.

To sum it up the Dodgers will have financial penalties if they exceed $206 million in 2019 and would have a draft pick penalty if they exceed $246 million.