2026 Payroll

E

Enscheff

Well-known member
The Braves payroll totals over the last several years:

2021: $152M
2022: $179M
2023: $206M
2024: $238M (AA said "the payroll has always gone up" after this season)
2025: $217M (and then it went down)

The Braves' status as luxury tax payor was mainly a function of the extensions they signed which made the tax hit much higher than the actual salary of the players. Now that the contracts have aged a bit, that is no longer the case. In fact, the actual salary of the players is now quite a bit higher than the tax hit. Therefor, I expect the actual payroll to be the limiting factor, not the luxury number.

Here is my take on the current payroll, making some assumptions about who will actually be kept via arbitration:

Spot Position Name Actual Luxury
1 C Murphy $15.00 $12.17
2 1B Olson $22.00 $21.00
3 2B Albies $7.00 $7.00
4 3B Riley $22.00 $21.20
5 SS Allen $1.50 $1.50
6 LF Profar $15.00 $14.00
7 CF Harris $8.00 $9.00
8 RF Acuna $17.00 $12.50
9 DH

10 SP1 Sale $18.00 $18.00
11 SP2 Strider $20.00 $12.50
12 SP3 Waldrep $0.78 $0.78
13 SP4 Schwelly $0.78 $0.78
14 SP5

15 BN1 Baldwin $0.78 $0.78
16 BN2 White $1.20 $1.20
17 BN3 Fraley $3.60 $3.60
18 BN4

19 BP1 Jiminez $9.00 $8.67
20 BP2 Lee $1.90 $1.90
21 BP3 Holmes $0.78 $0.78
22 BP4 Lopez $14.00 $10.00
23 BP5 Bummer $9.50 $6.50
24 BP6 AJSS
25 BP7
26 BP8

NA Injured AJSS $0.78 $0.78

NA Buyout Fletcher $1.50 $1.50
NA Buyout Arcia $1.00 $1.00
NA Buyout Johnson $0.75 $0.75
NA Buyout Kinley $0.75 $0.75

Total $192.60 $163.86


It's reasonable to assume the max payroll will be roughly $250M, but could be as low as the $220M, so it stands to reason AA has $28M-$58M to spend.

He needs:

1 SP
1 SS
1 OF/DH
2-3 BP arms

I'll leave it to the reader to decide how emotional to get over these numbers.
 
AA interview it sounded like they intend to use Reynaldo as a starter. He mentioned him with Sale and the Spencers as the SP we have locked into the rotation then said "and we got some other guys like Waldrep and Elder". Not a ringing endorsement imo. Waldrep feels like our best trade chip. I feel like we match up well with the Cardinals. Winn think could be had. Majority of his value is defense. Winn is a complimentary player not a franchise player to build around. Donovan only has 2 years left but has limited power even for 2B limiting value. Sonny Gray we all know about. Allergic to big media markets. Full no trade clause so he can dictate where he goes. Has Atlanta written all over it. Contract is basically a wash if not slight negative value. They also have lefty reliever JoJo Romero set to make 4.4 million with another year of arb. Could be third lefty in the pen. I could see a massive trade. Just about fills every hole but we almost certainly would have to include Waldrep. Maybe we pay some of Arenados salary to facilitate a trade to another team.
 
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Lopez being counted on to start should be criminal. I would take a flyer on Dustin May though. Has a big arm and a down year coming back from injury but could be a weapon out of the bullpen and spot start.
 
bravesfanMatt said:
relying on Lopez to be a viable starting pitcher going into 2026 would be a fireable offense. I hope that is not a real plan with Elder as a fall back again.
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Agreed. Relying on a guy with that injury history and then claiming, "how could we have possibly planned for so many injuries?", is pure incompetence.

That rotation currently consists of a rail thin walking injury who broke a bone falling on grass, a guy who may never regain his velocity, a guy who just broke his elbow, a guy with several shoulder issues, and a guy who may or may not suffer a sophomore slump. And it's primary depth piece is a guy who people on this board argue over being a AAAA guy or a #5.

Anyone who thinks this rotation is good to go should not be making decisions for a professional sports organization.
 
Contract details for all players are free for all to see, and I listed every single one of them. They do not add up to those numbers.

Minus Fraley the current payroll is $189M.
 
For what it's worth, for the Braves to jump into the Top 5 payrolls they would have to jump past the Jays at roughly $255M.

So a jump to $250M+ is perfectly reasonable if you believe anything out of McQuack's mouth.
 
Well so far AA has swapped a perfectly good 4th OFer making $3M for a much lesser bench OFer making $1M. So that’s a good start, and I’m sure it means nothing about the available payroll.
 
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