According to Frank Coonelly, via Dejan Kovacevic:
The Pirates “certainly can and I suspect will” top the $90 million mark in payroll in 2015, Frank Coonelly told DKonPittsburghSports.com exclusively Thursday.
But before you get too excited, Kovacevic goes on to explain that the $90M figure refers to overall payroll expenditures for the 2015 season. Overall expenditures are typically higher than opening day payroll, due to in-season acquisitions and players promoted from the minor leagues. In fact, from 2011-14, the Pirates’ opening day payroll was, on average, $9.3M less than overall expenditures. So if the overall budget for MLB payroll is $90-93M, we can expect opening day payroll to be $80-85M.
Kovacevic suggests that the Pirates have $20M to spend on pitching this winter, but based on his own numbers that seems wildly optimistic. As you can see from the depth chart, the team’s opening day payroll currently projects to be about $72M, leaving only $10M, give or take, to spend before opening day. The Pirates can cut that $72M figure some. For instance, Kovacevic mentions that Jose Tabata’s 2014 salary wasn’t counted on the MLB payroll after he was outrighted to AAA in June. Tabata still isn’t on the 40-man roster, so it’s possible that the team isn’t counting his 2015 salary in its budget either. The team also has a clear non-tender candidate in Gaby Sanchez. Dropping Sanchez and Tabata’s salaries from the payroll would bring the number down to $66M or so. If you use that number and sort of squint, you can see the Pirates’ having $20M to spend this winter, putting the opening day payroll around $86M.
That’s a tad optimstic, though, based on the figures Kovacevic is reporting. Pessimistically, the team might only have $8M to spend this winter. Without knowing more, the safest bet is to assume the team has something like $10-15M available this winter.
With that money, they need to find at least one good starter. They probably can’t get one for $10M. For $15M, they have a shot. I’d like to think the number is closer to $15M, but we’ll have to wait and see.
The McCutchen Era 