Kansas City Royals: Evaluating the 2017 Payroll

Kansas City Royals designated hitter Kendrys Morales (25) - Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Kansas City Royals designated hitter Kendrys Morales (25) - Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
8 of 10
Next
Kansas City Royals right fielder Lorenzo Cain (6 – Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Kansas City Royals right fielder Lorenzo Cain (6 – Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports /

The Estimated Payroll for the 2017 Kansas City Royals

This is about to get ugly. Dayton Moore is already on record saying the payroll needs to be trimmed. The team has a bunch of key players who will become unrestricted free agents after the season.

The window for this core of players is closing fast, and there isn’t any wiggle room for Moore to add key elements to help the team to improve.

So here are the estimated numbers for the 2017 25-man roster:

  • Infield – $58 million
  • Outfield – $30 million
  • Pitching – $69 million
  • Total – $157 million

Gulp!

Even if Kendrys Morales moves on and the Royals replace him with an internal candidate like Hunter Dozier, the payroll will still be around $140 million.

There is not much room here to maneuver without trading away a key piece or two.