Payroll Implications After the Trade Deadline

Taking a look at the Pirates payroll situation after the Trade Deadline

Photo Credit: Ryan Palencer

Another trade deadline has come and gone.

While other outlets are going to cover the players coming and going and how they will impact the team on the field, I’ve always cared more about the off the field piece, which no one else is talking about.

With that in mind, here’s a breakdown of the trade deadline focused on payroll, options, and service time.

The first trade was made when the Pirates sent Carlos Santana to the Milwaukee Brewers a few days before the deadline, receiving complex league infielder Jhonny Severino. This opened a spot on the 40-man roster—we’ll get there—while dropping the payroll projection $2,183,072, once you factor in the recall of Josh Palacios—you always need to account for players taking the spot of those on their way out. Severino is far away, as he’s not Rule 5 eligible until 2026.

Then comes deadline day, which the Pirates kicked off by trading Rich Hill and Ji Man Choi to the San Diego Padres for Jackson Wolf, Alfonso Rivas, and Estuar Suero. The 40-man count didn’t change, as Wolf was added earlier in the season from Double-A to make one spot start, while Rivas was also selected to the roster midseason after signing a minor league deal in the offseason. Having been optioned after his start, Wolf will use an option as of August 11^th, when his optional assignment hits twenty days, leaving him with two going into 2024. Rivas, on the other hand, used one in 2022, as well as being down twenty days earlier in the season. That will leave him with one option before next season.

Wolf comes with six years of contractual control, while Rivas can’t surpass 2.000 after 2023, leaving him with five. Suero, on the other hand, is Rule 5 eligible in 2026.

When trades like this happen and I’m estimating payroll changes, I like to try and break them down into component parts as much as possible, as the trade results in several different moving parts involving the roster.

Choi for Rivas is an easy one-for-one—payroll went down $1,246,237 when replacing Choi’s $4.65 million salary with Rivas’ $850,000. Hill is a little more difficult, as he didn’t have a direct replacement to the roster in this trade; therefore, Wolf’s minor league salary of $117,400 will replace his $8,000,000 million salary, decreasing payroll $2,585,154.

The Pirates then traded Austin Hedges to the Texas Rangers for international pool space. I know it can be confused by some fans from time to time, so just to do my due diligence—money does not change hands; rather, the Pirates simply receive more space to spend on top of their already allotted $5,825,500 for 2023. Interestingly enough, the team announced the space as being applied to the 2023-2024 period, but that’s actually not correct. While it’s true that after COVID the periods were broken up by years—the January 15^th, 2022 to December 15^th 2022 period was actually known as the 2021-2022 Signing Period, despite never falling in 2021—starting in 2023, the period is now simply known as the 2023 Signing Period.

The team can only spend the extra money this season, leaving them with a little over four months to spend the funds before they lose them for good. Typically, most of the best players have signed by now, with any players worth looking at typically waiting until the next period to sign when teams have their full bonus pools available. The Pirates must have someone in mind, as the team received the rest of the Rangers’ pool, which is more than what you’d probably think Hedges was worth. Therefore, if they end up making another notable signing, it will effectively be a player acquired for Hedges.

With Jason Delay being the player coupled against Hedges, payroll goes down another $1,438,918.

For their final trade of the day, the Pirates sent Rodolfo Castro to the Philadelphia Phillies for lefthanded starter Bailey Falter. At the time of the trade, both players were in the minors, meaning the payroll change was quite insignificant, going up a mere $8,679 due to Falter’s higher minor league split ($216,628 versus $190,165).

Coming into the season, I have Falter at 1.029 years of service, and he accrued another .047 to start 2023 before being optioned. He ended up being recalled to start Saturday, but it’s obviously unclear how long he will be up for the rest of the season. If it’s the entirety of what’s left, he would accrue .058 more days, totaling .105 for 2023. This would give him 1.134 going into 2024, with five years of contractual control remaining; however, he would be on track for four years of arbitration instead of three, as that puts him in Super 2 range.

He will have to make the roster going into next season, as he used options in 2021 and 2022 and has been on assignment long enough this season to use his third and final remaining.

A straggling move that needs accounted for is the selection of Vinny Capra, who took an active roster spot the day of the deadline, as Rivas didn’t show up until a few days later. Nick Gonzales was sent down when Rivas was activated, meaning I’m going to couple him in with these moves.

Payroll went up $250,000 when Capra was selected to the roster, his salary at $750,000, and down $194,387 when Gonzales was optioned. A few days later, Capra was optioned to Indianapolis in favor of Falter, lowing payroll another $26,078, with Capra’s salary higher than Falters ($733,000).

In all, a $29,535 increase can be assigned to Capra hanging out on the active roster, waiting for new players to show up, plus taking one of the 40-man slots that was vacated during the deadline period.

Capra has six years of contractual control and two options remaining, but something is telling me neither matters all that much.

All in all, payroll went down a projected $7,415,166, which could go without saying as quite a bit. Before this string of moves, I was projecting the team at an in-season increase of over $4.25 million and a payroll exceeding $79.25 million. That swung to a decrease of more than $3.1 million, with a new projected total of $71,835,991.

It should be mentioned that the team claimed Thomas Hatch off waivers from the Blue Jays on Sunday, filling the other 40-man spot vacated during the trade deadline. I’d have factored that change in here, but he’s yet to be officially assigned, so we don’t know if it’s a major or minor league rate from here on out. Prorating his $122,923 minor league salary raises payroll $37,009, but again, I won’t factor that in officially just yet.

I have his service time at 1.122 years coming into 2023, with at least .022 so far this season. That means, depending on how much more major league time he accrues, he could either surpass 2.000 and be left with four years of contractual control, or come up short and have five, but be on track for Super 2 eligibility.

If he ends up sticking around, he’ll have to make the active roster next season, as he’s exhausted his third and final option in 2023.

I’m not sure how it compares to deadlines of recent history, but a decrease of 9.4% in-season is nothing to scoff at, and with payroll projecting to finish higher than it has since 2018, this shaves off a fair portion of the $24,375,000 the team committed to these players before the season began.