It’s taken about a month longer than it did recently, but the Associated Press has finally given us our yearly gift and reported the official year-end payroll for 2022 — the Labor Relations Department and Competitive Balance Tax. both types.
This is one of my favorites and I’m most looking forward to this year’s report. Because I can compare my estimates with the actual verified numbers.
Back in October, I printed an estimated salary of $60,925,548 (LRD) and $73,959,797 (CBT). How did these compare?
First of all, I would like to point out some simple adjustments, at least to the CBT calculation.
AP’s report showed the official benefits accounted for in total – $16,016,707. My estimate was based on a $16,000,000 placeholder, so I added $16,707 to the final amount. I also noticed an unreported bonus the Pittsburgh Pirates had in the book between October and now, so I added another $717,213. I haven’t added it to the LRD number as I don’t know yet if it’s included in the LRD number, but both of these extra amounts brought my expected CBT total to $74,693,717.
As for the official numbers, AP shows that the Pirates have an LRD salary of $61,196,070 and a CBT salary of $75,399,389. I decided to compare my work to the work of other industry standards in this area (Spotrac and Roster Resource).
| labor department | |||
| sauce | Last | difference | % difference |
| APs | 61,196,070 | ||
| spotter | 66,184,032 | 4,987,962 | 7.54% |
| Roster resource | 58,707,802 | (2,488,268) | -4.24% |
| Pirate Perspective | 60,925,548 | (270,522) | -0.44% |
| competitiveness balance tax | |||
| sauce | Last | difference | % difference |
| APs | 75,399,389 | ||
| spotter | 73,807,070 | (1,592,319) | -2.16% |
| Roster resource | 74,641,176 | (758,213) | -1.02% |
| Pirate Perspective | 74,693,717 | (705,672) | -0.94% |
As you can see, the final $270,522 difference in the LRD calculation was well above both, but we were all much closer in the final CBT calculation. Spotrac included his $10 million figure, which is yet to be named, and should be left out of the conversation entirely.
But I digress…
In my opinion, you are in the right place for salary sources. I take pride in my work and look forward to being rewarded for it.
To be honest, I couldn’t care less, but for the bits that need to be relayed anyway:
Pirates ranked 28thth and 29th They finished ahead of only the Baltimore Orioles and Oakland Athletics in LRD and CBT combined respectively. Year-over-year, the Pirates increased his CBT dollars by a total of $13,587,248 ($61,812,141 to $75,399,389). This is part of a trend that I find really interesting.
As you can see from the chart below, CBT spending skyrocketed from 2021 to 2022.
| 2021 | 2022 | difference | |
| NYM | 207,728,776 | 299,842,423 | 92,113,647 |
| New York | 208,418,540 | 267,753,417 | 59,334,877 |
| Col | 117,210,393 | 172,251,358 | 55,040,965 |
| TEX | 111,309,808 | 160,505,146 | 49,195,338 |
| The | 103,879,667 | 152,359,282 | 48,479,615 |
| Sea | 102,679,174 | 145,137,950 | 42,458,776 |
| ATL | 172,630,704 | 214,092,505 | 41,461,801 |
| CHWMore | 177,837,827 | 215,631,300 | 37,793,473 |
| TBR | 89,833,652 | 125,261,660 | 35,428,008 |
| Phi | 209,370,501 | 244,413,284 | 35,042,783 |
| Thor | 166,054,167 | 198,543,787 | 32,489,620 |
| Mia | 82,332,229 | 114,348,173 | 32,015,944 |
| Kure | 62,212,834 | 91,592,881 | 29,380,047 |
| boss | 207,640,471 | 236,149,678 | 28,509,207 |
| minimum | 145,511,247 | 173,198,565 | 27,687,318 |
| mill | 131,990,136 | 153,006,350 | 21,016,214 |
| SDP | 216,467,691 | 235,082,125 | 18,614,434 |
| CHCMore | 165,665,645 | 180,512,338 | 14,846,693 |
| pit | 61,812,141 | 75,399,389 | 13,587,248 |
| ants | 109,387,132 | 118,290,204 | 8,903,072 |
| youth | 285,599,944 | 293,330,382 | 7,730,438 |
| Bal | 76,348,794 | 82,898,023 | 6,549,229 |
| KCRMore | 108,026,769 | 114,324,301 | 6,297,532 |
| new | 206,641,209 | 210,686,230 | 4,045,021 |
| SFGMore | 173,481,453 | 171,423,107 | (2,058,346) |
| LAA | 198,984,916 | 193,269,044 | (5,715,872) |
| was | 174,582,117 | 160,500,353 | (14,081,764) |
| CIN | 144,248,891 | 125,021,497 | (19,227,394) |
| STL | 198,350,234 | 174,439,667 | (23,910,567) |
| oak | 102,225,663 | 65,325,365 | (36,900,298) |
| 4,518,462,725 | 5,164,589,784 | 646,127,059 |
This is why the battle of players for higher CBT thresholds was so important. This is because spending increased in tandem with spending limits.
Of course, a lot of the hard work was done before the lockout, so 2022 may not be the best barometer. However, spending always increased immediately after the new agreement, labor peace was guaranteed for several years, and so far this off-season has not proven otherwise.
It’s hard to imagine the final total going down from 2022, and it will be interesting to see if rising tides continue to lift all ships over the next few years.
Off-season calendar update
No updates for this week.
Pirate Payroll Update
— to make room for official signatures Andrew McCutchenpirate designation Miguel Andujar for assignment.
The team had already agreed a $1,525,000 deal with Andujal in November. Unless Andujar frankly opts for free agency, they’re tied to that amount at all costs — a right as a player with more than three years of service.
The Baltimore Orioles were recently able to pull off similar results to Ryan O’Hearn, who is closer to Anduhal in terms of salary, position and service. Teams could be weary of taking on such financial commitments for a piece with depth, and the Orioles know it, with O’Hearn opting for free agency for a $1.4 million salary. So they were able to keep him in the organization for the same price, saving 40 spots in the process.
That’s very likely the Pirates’ thought process in making this move.
As for the impact on salary, remembered Tucupita Marcano Added to active roster and added immortality Ryan Rest My salary increased by $645,742 in the process.
— Salary estimates for 2023 are $73,202,372 for Labor Relations and $89,619,039 for CBT.
A longtime Pirates Prospects reader, Ethan has covered payroll, trading, and rules in depth since 2018, and has dabbled in these topics for as long as he can remember. At The Point of Pittsburgh he began writing about the Pirates before moving to Pirates Prospects at the start of the 2019 season.
Always a lover of numbers and finding answers, Ethan prefers diving into these topics rather than what’s really happening on the field. These under-covered and often mis-covered topics are his true passion, and he is passionate about subjects his fans may not necessarily understand, but which are nonetheless important. We are doing our best to educate our fans.
When I’m not updating my favorite spreadsheet, I work full time as an accountant and as a father of two young daughters, I watch a lot of movies and TV shows in the evenings.