Kansas City Royals 2017 Payroll Still Extremely High

ROYALS 2017 PAYROLL: THE BULLPEN

Only two things seem certain about the bullpen – Kelvin Herrera will close and Joakim Soria will be on the roster. After that- who knows?

Who is in the bullpen depends on who is healthy and who makes the rotation. Most likely, Chris Young will fill a long relief role. That leaves five spots open.

If the Royals decide to carry someone like Burns or Colon, then the bullpen will have just seven pitchers, but knowing how Yost likes to ride the bullpen, it makes sense to carry eight relief pitchers since the backup offensive players should be versatile.

So who? If Matt Strahm doesn’t make the rotation, he is probably in. Ditto for Mike Minor. After that, you can figure either Scott Alexander or Brian Flynn will take up a spot. Both are left-handed but with lefty Strahm already in place, just one of these guys will make it.

Candidates from the minors include Alec Mills, Kevin McCarthy, Jake Junis. There also a few veteran non-roster invitees like Alburquerque, Bobby Parnell, and Brandon League that have a chance.

This latter group could have the edge if they have good springs. The Royals have been very good reclaiming pitchers like these and extracting incredible value from them. If these guys do make the roster, their salaries may vary.

• Kelvin Herrera – $5.325 million
• Joakim Soria – $8 million
• Mike Minor – $4 million
• Matt Strahm – $535,000
• Brian Flynn – $535,000
• Bobby Parnell – $1.5 million (estimate)
• Brandon League – $1.5 (estimate)
• Al Alburquerque – $1.5 million
• TOTAL – $22.9 million (estimate)

Considering Soria takes up a huge chunk of that estimated bullpen salary, $23 million isn’t an unsightly number. Of course, the bullpen always seems to have a surprise or two when camp breaks.

Again, there is a lot of speculation in putting this together, but this is a very plausible scenario.