{"id":50518,"date":"2025-07-02T11:42:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=50518"},"modified":"2025-07-03T11:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:43:10","slug":"the-2025-mlb-all-dead-money-team-starring-stephen-strasburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=50518","title":{"rendered":"The 2025 MLB All-Dead Money Team, starring Stephen Strasburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was putting together my annual Bobby Bonilla Day post, I noticed just how much retained\/dead money salaries existed in the MLB ecosystem.\u00a0 At first, I was going to add it onto the Bobby Bonilla Day post, but as I was typing away, I realized that it had some legs to stand on its own, so I decided to ultimately break it off and let it fly and artificially inflate my post count that doesn\u2019t matter to anyone else on the planet but me.<\/span><\/p>\n

So as kind of an addendum to the Bobby Bonilla Day post, the topic this post is retained salaries<\/strong>, which I like to simply consider, dead money<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

While combing through salary information, I noticed almost as frequent amounts of cases of retained\/dead money on most teams, and this is different from deferred money because these payment obligations are not predetermined and agreed upon so much as they\u2019re salaries that teams agree to be responsible for in exchange for these talents to be cut and free up the roster space.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, there were 24 players spanning 18 teams who are getting paid despite in most cases, not being on a Major League roster, or even actively playing at all.\u00a0 Combing through the names and cases, there are typically two primary camps of retained\/dead money: young prospects who clearly have savvy agents who managed to get them guaranteed salary numbers, but they proved to not be ready for the Major Leagues yet, got demoted or cut, but the team was still on the hook.\u00a0 Or, there are veterans with substantial money, that in most cases, fell off a cliff, got injured, and the team preferred to cut them and eat the salary just to free up the roster spot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, 24 players is almost a roster, so here we go again \u2013 the 2024 All-Retained, All-Dead Money Starting Lineup that actually has a catcher:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Pos.<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nName<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nSalary<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nTeam<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nRetired?<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
C<\/span><\/td>\nMatt Thaiss \u2020<\/span><\/td>\n$100K<\/span><\/td>\nCHW\/LAA<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1B<\/span><\/td>\nEric Hosmer \u2020<\/span><\/td>\n$17.9K<\/span><\/td>\nBOS\/SDP<\/span><\/td>\n2023<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2B<\/span><\/td>\nIsiah Kiner-Falefa<\/span><\/td>\n$1.2<\/span><\/td>\nPIT<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3B<\/span><\/td>\nNolan Arenado \u2020<\/span><\/td>\n$5.0M<\/span><\/td>\nCOL<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SS<\/span><\/td>\nWander Franco<\/span><\/td>\n$16.5<\/span><\/td>\nTBR<\/span><\/td>\n2023<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OF<\/span><\/td>\nMitch Haniger<\/span><\/td>\n$14.5M<\/span><\/td>\nSEA<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OF<\/span><\/td>\nCody Bellinger<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n$2.5M<\/span><\/td>\nCHC<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OF<\/span><\/td>\nAaron Hicks<\/span><\/td>\n$10.7M<\/span><\/td>\nNYY<\/span><\/td>\n2024<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DH<\/span><\/td>\nJose Abreu \u2020<\/span><\/td>\n$19.5M<\/span><\/td>\nHOU<\/span><\/td>\n2024<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SP<\/span><\/td>\nStephen Strasburg<\/span><\/td>\n$35.0M<\/span><\/td>\nWAS<\/span><\/td>\n2022<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SP<\/span><\/td>\nNestor Cortes<\/span><\/td>\n$2.0M<\/span><\/td>\nNYY<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
RP<\/span><\/td>\nRyan Pressley<\/span><\/td>\n$5.5M<\/span><\/td>\nHOU<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
RP<\/span><\/td>\nTaylor Rogers<\/span><\/td>\n$6.0M<\/span><\/td>\nSFG<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nReserves<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
INF<\/span><\/td>\nAndres Giminez<\/span><\/td>\n$1.0M<\/span><\/td>\nTOR<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OF<\/span><\/td>\nJorge Soler<\/span><\/td>\n$1.9M<\/span><\/td>\nSFG<\/span><\/td>\nActive<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u2020denotes player receiving multiple paychecks<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

So as you might be able to see, there\u2019s an absurd roster to be constructed from the dead money alone, and further illustrates the egregious amounts of financial waste that exists in the constructs of Major League Baseball, as well as professional sports itself.\u00a0 Sure, nobody should be obligated to work for free, and I too believe in the idea of past services rendered pay, when players are generally paupers on their minors to majors journey, if they even make it, but there are some dudes who simply don\u2019t need the money and should probably feel ashamed to be accepting it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, I\u2019m mostly referring to pitcher Stephen Strasburg<\/strong>, who is going to be making $35M from the Washington Nationals (bringing their total sunk cost amount to $60M).\u00a0 Yes, the man carried the team to a World Series in 2019, and at that point, had already cleared $80M in career earnings.\u00a0 Since then, he has suffered constant injuries and can no longer play baseball, but somehow the Nats are still on the hook for his retained salary until 2027, in which he will start making deferred payments from them instead.\u00a0 At this time he has tripled his career earnings, and by the time the Nationals are done being handcuffed to him, he will nearly have quadrupled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wander Franco<\/strong> is a unique case, because his salary is probably going to be refunded to the Rays on account of his sexual deviancy scandal which has him out of baseball outright currently, but he still shows up on their books for the time being.<\/span><\/p>\n

Matt Thaiss<\/strong> is a guy I\u2019ve never heard of in my life, which added to my surprise at seeing him appear twice in retained lists, for both the Angels and the White Sox.\u00a0 He\u2019s a journeyman catcher who really isn\u2019t good, but as documented, catching is the thankless position, so he seems to have always managed to have a job.\u00a0 But his agent clearly seemed to be clever enough to ensure that he still got a paycheck, and although both teams are only on the hook for $50K a piece, which is pennies to a Major League squad, $100K to play baseball is still the dream, and why Thaiss makes a roster at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as dead money goes, there\u2019s about $146,789,000 of it on the books of these 18 teams.\u00a0 That would rank 16th<\/sup> in MLB payrolls, higher than 14 other teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which brings me to one final observation before I begin to wrap all this up: six teams managed to have absolutely no deferred money obligations, nor did they have any dead money retained salaries.\u00a0 The A\u2019s, the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals, the Miami Marlins, the Texas Rangers, and of course, the Atlanta Braves<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

People accuse me of being pessimistic and curmudgeon about the Braves and their perception that they don\u2019t spend money, but it all comes from actual evidence.\u00a0 The team is so risk-averse and absolutely unwilling to compete when it comes to any transaction that requires them to open their wallets.\u00a0 There\u2019s zero creativity when it comes to paying people, and as a result they lose out on every free agent that could possibly help them, and it\u2019s laugh-worthy whenever the Braves\u2019 name is mentioned an interested party in any available free agent.<\/span><\/p>\n

As much as baseball nerds love to debate and typically applaud teams for smart spending, as it\u2019s demonstrating more and more these days, sometimes you have to spend some money in order to get results.\u00a0 Everyone may hate the Dodgers for committing a billion dollars to their roster, but there\u2019s little reason to believe that they\u2019re not going to cruise to the playoffs this year, and every foreseeable year afterward.\u00a0 And when their payments start to come due in the 2030\u2019s, they\u2019re no guarantee to turn into the 2010s Phillies, because they have smart, creative people in their free agent that aren\u2019t afraid to find alternative ways in order to remain competitive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The six teams that have no debts whatsoever, I don\u2019t really see that as much of a good thing as much as I see six franchises that are cowards when it comes to spending money, and more interested in finding the perfect balance of maintaining a baseball club while padding the pockets of investors.\u00a0 The challenge as fans is to able to sift through the context, and find out how much teams feed us bullshit, versus how much they\u2019re actually willing to invest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, much like Bobby Bonilla Day, when it comes to retained salaries, there\u2019s a tremendous amount of waste here as well.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I will do this one on an annual basis, because I found that writing about this topic dregs up more angst and venom towards the Braves than any Braves fan really should have towards the team they\u2019re actually fans of.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps if they haven\u2019t been underperforming as much as their roster\u2019s potential could be great, I wouldn\u2019t feel this way, but we\u2019ll see where we land this time next season.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was putting together my annual Bobby Bonilla Day post, I noticed just how much retained\/dead money salaries existed in the MLB ecosystem.\u00a0 At first, I was going to add it onto the Bobby Bonilla Day post, but as I was typing away, I realized that it had some legs to stand on its … Continue reading The 2025 MLB All-Dead Money Team, starring Stephen Strasburg<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[196,62,66,79,45,76,191,205,83,52,58,190,49],"class_list":["post-50518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-barves","tag-baseball","tag-braves","tag-cashmoney","tag-fail","tag-geeks","tag-greed","tag-mlb","tag-observations","tag-owned","tag-sports","tag-white-people","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50520,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50518\/revisions\/50520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}