I made a small update to the simulator to account for some uncommon wild card scenarios (eg a crappy division winner stealing a wild card spot away from the 5th-best team in the league)

Looks like Guthrie's contract has been restructured

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/0...-contract.html

$8M 2014
$9M 2015
$10M mutual option for 2016 with a $3.2M buyout

Hmmmm ... frees up some money for this year.

Very interesting.

$$$ to try and bring back Santana on a 1 yr deal?

Question is:

Is that money to keep things at the current payroll projection and pay for arbitration awards?

Or is it to add a few pieces here and there?

$3 million might be enough to nab a back-end starter/reclamation type on a one-year deal.

I'm ignoring the mutual option since it is very unlikely to be exercised.

We're basically paying $200k for the right to delay $3MM of salary for 2 years. That is an annual interest rate of roughly 3.3%, which is probably fair.

Oh, and of course this also means that the Royals are probably trying to add one more player. I thought they were probably done, but maybe not.

There is literally no reason for Guthrie to do this unless the Royals told him they need this payroll flexibility to win this year.

edit: apparently this happened in November and was not reported until now. So, it means nothing as far as whether or not the Royals are done.

ROYALS
Guthrie, Royals restructure contract
January 13
BY BLAIR KERKHOFF
The Kansas City Star

The Royals have restructured the contract of pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, freeing up some payroll space for 2014.

Guthrie was originally scheduled to earn $11 million this season and $9 million in 2015 under the terms of his original three-year deal.

Instead, he’ll earn $8 million this season and $9 million in 2015, with a $10 million mutual option added for 2016.

The option has a $3.2 million buyout, which means the value of the contract is about the same, with Guthrie getting an additional $200,000.

But the Royals have cleared $3 million from their 2014 payroll.

The news was first reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, but the deal was restructured in November.

“We were able to restructure the contract and gain more flexibility heading into the offseason,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.

The Royals have been busy in the offseason, signing second baseman Omar Infante for four years with a club option for a fifth for $30 million, and pitcher Jason Vargas for four years at $32 million.

The restructuring brings the Royals’ payroll to about $87 million, which is about the same as last season when they delivered their best record in a quarter century at 86-76, and what Moore has said he expects it to be this season.

The Royals have seven arbitration-eligible players: first baseman Eric Hosmer, infielder/outfielder Emilio Bonifacio, outfielder Justin Maxwell and pitchers Greg Holland, Luke Hochevar, Aaron Crow and Tim Collins.

Those seven can file for arbitration on Tuesday, and the Royals and any player would exchange salary proposals by Friday. Hearings are scheduled in February, but the player can sign before — or even during — the hearings.

Guthrie, who will turn 35 in April, was acquired from the Rockies in 2012. He was 15-12 with a 4.04 ERA and led the Royals in victorieslast season. He’s 20-15 with a 3.78 ERA in 47 starts in Kansas City.

So where's all the new tv money?

Glass shoved it up his ass for safe keeping.

It's hanging out with the money Meche gave back.

Well, first you have to start with the very safe assumption that its not going to be a flat 20MM per year. These big sports mega contracts are always designed to start below average and finish above average. So, probably call it 15MM. Then, from another story (I think it was about the Pirates? Don't remember) we did find out that in 2014 MLB plans to withhold a big chunk of money from each team, about 4MM, for the central fund.

As of right now, payroll went up by about 9MM. I'm not sure where the other roughly 2MM is, but most of the new TV money is on the field.

We're not getting much more new money until our terrible local TV deal expires in 2019.

Our attendance last year was dreadful so the owner probably doesn't feel like spending more this year. He's made a ton off this franchise but I doubt he made much last year. Our fans need to show up this year

Don't blame it on the fans, the ones who've had to endure shit baseball for almost 3 decades. David Glass has plenty of money to spend on the team, with or without sell-out crowds at the games. The last thing I am pointing a finger at is the fans. Stop using that as an excuse for our cheap-ass owner, it's obvious he doesn't care about anything other than the money in his pockets.

There's no doubt that we would all love to see The K packed every night, but can you really blame the fans? When the Royals win consistently year-in and year-out and the fans aren't showing up then blame them all you want, hell i'll join you, but 2 winning seasons in 20 years isn't going to make the casual fan and family rush out to the ballpark very often and I am not going to blame them for that.