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HI Ethan. I take it that the Brubaker salary is in your OD calculations? If so, the payroll is really

~$85 million.

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Great stuff as always!

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You're the numbers man Ethan and I'm not so I always enjoy reading your articles even though fully comprehending them takes effort. Pirate spending, or more accurately the lack of it, has been and will very likely remain a sore topic for Pirate fans as long as "you know who" holds the purse strings.

Comparing 2017 spending with 2024 spending would require adjusting for inflation so the $87 million can't mean a whole lot unless that's done. I do know that the current average team payroll is somewhere around $164 million and was in the $130 million range a few years ago and that the Pirates are closer to the bottom than they were in 2017.

None of this matters if the team continues to win of course but is that even something to hope for when other teams are spending over $300 million on payroll and every other team in the division significantly outspends the Pirates? I realize that's not your point or even concern with articles like this but it is for those of us who still try to hold out for some kind of realistic hope for the not too distant future.

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MLB payroll is a function of revenues; it always has been and it always will be. Find ways to generate more revenue, i.e., attendance, ticket price increases, adding parking revenues, new TV/RsN deal, etc., and payroll will increase.

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Great work Ethan. $87.5M then is the number that I shall remember. But every year I ask for clarification.....is this the 26-man OD or 40-man?

I have no use for the 40-man number....it just inflates the actual MLB number.

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For your reference, the AP reported the numbers you are personally concerned about. See the far left column:

https://twitter.com/EthanHullihen/status/1778890339341787491?t=3fhOPeDN_k1YTvvUgSw9FA&s=19

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As clearly stated in the article, it's 40-man.

This is how MLB tracks it, so it's how I track it. My goal at year end is to be as close to official as possible, and to do that the minors have to be included.

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I'm not seeing it clearly stated 26 or 40, but maybe I haven't had a second cup of coffee yet.

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The total includes a section covering minor league salary, which is the group of players that started on assignment

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