Kansas City Royals Absolutely Have the Money to Sign Eric Hosmer

1.) 2018 Payroll Should be Much Lighter

Pete Grathoff of the Kansas City Star wrote a great article earlier this spring about how much money the Royals have invested into 2018 and beyond. The Kansas City Royals have about $98 million locked up in guaranteed contracts next season.

Kelvin Herrera, Nate Karns, Brian Flynn and Billy Burns will all be eligible for arbitration, as well. In a bit of a stroke of luck for KC, only Herrera played the entire season at the big league level in 2017. And he didn’t do much to help himself in the way of a big raise.

Herrera made $5.325 million this season. Let’s assume that goes up a tad in arbitration and call it $6 million in 2018. That bumps the total payroll to $104 million.

Karns only made $571,000 in 2017, and he was hurt for most of the season. Let’s call it $750,000 for him next season, bumping the 2018 payroll to $104.75 million.

IF Flynn makes the roster, he’s in a very similar spot as Karns heading into 2018. Let’s give him $750,000 as well. That’s $105.5 million.

Add on another $1.5 million for Burns and Paulo Orlando—IF they both make the team, and you’re looking at about $107 million for 2018. Give me $5 million in error, and you’re still only at $112 million for 2018.

Hosmer is going to get north of $100 million. My projection is that he gets about $18 million/year for however many years he wants. Regardless of the years, add $18 million to the 2018 payroll and you’re looking at about $130 million—more than $10 million cheaper than 2017.

2.) Influx of Disney Cash

Every MLB team is going to receive $50 million from Disney this offseason.

Disney upped its stake in BAMTech this year and made a $1.58 billion deal with MLB. In turn, all 30 teams will receive a $50 million spending bonus this offseason. Yes, that means the Red Sox and Yankees will also receive that money, but it benefits the Royals more than those two teams because of the luxury tax.

Even if general manager Dayton Moore chose to spend all of that money this offseason, Kansas City wouldn’t surpass the luxury tax. Boston and New York have been very vocal about their desire to stay under the luxury tax in order to preserve draft picks.

So this extra $50 million that KC will receive from the Disney deal should put them on a bit more level playing field in the Hosmer sweepstakes.