36.5. Decisions, Decisions

[agrudez]

With 116.8M currently projected for next year's payroll, there are clearly some decisions to be made this offseason. an easy one was that we're already saying goodbye to Gutierrez, Ortiz and Sanchez - all of whom have completed their contracts and won't be tendered new ones. Also relatively easy are the decisions on Garza (4.5M TO) and Templeman (1.3M arb estimate). Those two moves by themselves will get us projected to be under the cap at the start of next season, but are we really wanting to run back the 2036 Phantoms in 2037? A theoretical healthier roster with potential rookie contributions from Reyes, Imai and Cochrane might not be the worst play.

Or... we could opt for more of a shakeup.

In that scenario we can free up over 20M just from declining Sandcastle's TO (16M) and moving on from Sullivan's arb estimate (6M). Tack on Young (4.2M) and Bluth (1.1M) and we'd be just shy of 30M in available cap space. Of course, in that scenario we'd need a new SS and would be counting on Reyes to be an everyday starter right out of the gate in the corner OF (unless we acquired a new one with our newly acquired cap space).

Decisions, decisions.