Brains! 2061.7: A Deep Dive Into Jacksonville's Cap

[aaronweiner]

Big Papi is a Zombie, and with him comes a huge price tag: over $50 million owed over the next three years and another $10 million owed this year. For some franchises, this might be crushing. For Jacksonville? It's the price of doing business, which has been low this year and should stay low for the next few.

"Even with the cap collapse, we could afford to absorb Husam's deal into cap space," said GM Aaron Weiner. "And we can keep affording to do that going forward."

How on Earth will the team manage that, especially while already paying eight figures to Bob Anderson and Gav Mastinsky? Not so fast. Anderson's contract was specifically frontloaded, and Mastinsky is just tiptoeing along the eight figure line. Ignoring team captain Stefan Adilov's player option, which he will likely excise and may get in cash instead of salary, the highest sure salary outside of the two top starters is...

"Clarence Moore, $3.6 million," Weiner said. "And that's why we're not freaking out."

The Zombies will have to remake the pitching staff a bit next year. Anderson, Mastinsky, and Dan Voelzke make up a solid core. The rest of the rotation is right now whatever they get out of Ches Evgarov and swingman Ruben Din, which means they will likely have to sign or trade for a starting pitcher.

"We probably don't want to roll into next year with that kind of situation and no backup plan, but we still have cap space even with Husam," Weiner said. "Right now, our cap number with Husam is just around $85 million, and that's assuming we don't buy out Stefan and we keep Jesus Rios. Losing both of those guys would put us closer to $73 million. Even with the cap number at $110 million, we should be okay."

If the Zombies go aggressively with their rotation signing, they will still have some issues. The bullpen appears to be losing several key members led by Luke Seddon, who right now is insistent upon pursuing free agency. Even with Din going back into the pen, a lot of what makes up one of the BBA's strongest units might be gone, with Hayden Bennion and Bob Coutts each 35 years old this year and both pending free agents.

"We'll still have some of them there, but it'll look very different next year, especially if Luke is gone," Weiner said. "It's a problem."

Notice we haven't mentioned the lineup at all, and that's because the Zombies entire lineup other than Husam will earn in the neighborhood of $15 million. A couple players will be in their first years of arbitration, but mostly they are on rookie deals and bargain signings, like Pepe Aragon's two remaining years at $3 million each.

"I think we're going to owe Pepe big, but he kind of made it big while on that $9 million deal," said Weiner. "We're gonna pay the man."

And a lot of the future cap expenses aren't. There is literally no one in the front office that expects in 2063 to be paying Randolph Clarke, Jose Bravo, Hamdan Nuh, Juan Orquiz, Si-dao Yong, Ernesto Rivera, and Sung-moon Yu a combined $11 million - it is more likely that all of the above will be nontendered free agents. That team will need even more in the bullpen, but the cap number is even lower than next year.

"I think if we don't figure out a way to screw it up, we're going to be fine even with the shifting cap and Big Papi," said Weiner. "Though telling the future is fraught with peril. Just ask the guys in 2055. Or any of Gabe Manuel's favorite singers."