Chicago Cubs: Existing contracts and CBA will impact 2019 decisions

Chicago Cubs: Where do the Cubs stand?

The Cubs head into the 2019 season with $179 million in salary obligations not counting arbitration amount figures for Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber, Tommy La Stella, Kyle Hendricks, Mike Montgomery and Carl Edwards Jr.

This figure also assumes they will pick up the club options for Cole Hamels, Jose Quintana and Pedro Strop. They will likely not exercise Brandon Kintzler‘s club option, freeing up $10 million in payroll.

A rough estimate is the eight players in arbitration could cost the Cubs between $30 to $35 million.  That would bring the Cubs payroll to $204 million, just two million short of the 2019 salary threshold.

Even if the Cubs release Russell and say, trade Ian Happ and Schwarber, that frees up about $4.4 million, leaving  $6.4 million in threshold space, depending on who they get in return.

Could the Cubs go over the 2019 threshold?  Yes, but it wouldn’t take a big name signing to broach the extreme end of the CBA penalty regime.  So, any thought of a big free agent signing in the $30-$40 AAV range is very likely out of the question barring a major move to unload payroll.