The Diamondbacks came up two games shy of a playoff spot despite running a franchise-high payroll. Their spending will come down next season on the heels of their third straight missed October.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will not be at the same level. It\u2019ll be a lower payroll than we had this year,\u201d owner Ken Kendrick told Burns and Gambo<\/a> of Arizona Sports this afternoon. The Snakes finished the 2026 season with an approximate $193MM cash payroll and a luxury tax number around $236.29MM, as shown on MLBTR\u2019s new Payroll Tracker<\/a> (courtesy of contributor Ethan Hullihen). That\u2019s $8MM up from what had been a franchise high in 2025 and put the Snakes within $8MM of the first CBT threshold. The Diamondbacks have never paid the luxury tax.<\/p>\n The spending reduction doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the Snakes will make any cost-cutting transactions. As Kendrick pointed out, they have a decent amount of money coming off the books in the form of impending free agents who \u201cmade little or no contribution to the team\u201d this year.<\/p>\n Kendrick didn\u2019t single out any names, but it\u2019s easy enough to identify the players to whom he\u2019s alluding. Zac Gallen<\/a> played on a $22.025MM salary, albeit with more than $14MM deferred. He had an earned run average north of 6.00 in 22 appearances.\u00a0Lourdes Gurriel Jr.<\/a> made a $13MM salary and will collect a $5MM buyout at the end of the year. He had a career-worst .544 OPS and was released in September.<\/p>\n Michael Soroka<\/a> is the team\u2019s top impending free agent. He made $7.5MM this year and surely pitched his way to a raise. Ryan Thompson<\/a>,\u00a0A.J. Puk<\/a>,\u00a0Jonathan Lo\u00e1isiga<\/a>,\u00a0Taylor Clarke<\/a>,\u00a0James McCann<\/a>,\u00a0Ildemaro Vargas<\/a>,\u00a0Kevin Ginkel<\/a> and\u00a0Dennis Santana<\/a> combined for roughly $17MM on arbitration or one-year free agent contracts. Some of those players outperformed their modest salaries \u2014 Lo\u00e1isiga and Clarke especially \u2014 but they\u2019ll all be coming off the books this winter.<\/p>\n The D-Backs don\u2019t have any players who are entering arbitration for the first time.\u00a0Lars Nootbaar<\/a>, Gabriel Moreno<\/a> and\u00a0Ryne Nelson<\/a> will earn raises. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects<\/a> them to combine for roughly $15.8MM.\u00a0Pavin Smith<\/a> is projected for a $2.5MM salary but likely to be non-tendered. The Snakes spent just over $19.5MM on their arbitration class this year, so this group could net a few million dollars in savings.<\/p>\n Corbin Burnes<\/a>,\u00a0Eduardo Rodriguez<\/a>,\u00a0Corbin Carroll<\/a>,\u00a0Merrill Kelly<\/a>,\u00a0Nolan Arenado<\/a>,\u00a0Ketel Marte<\/a>,\u00a0Brandon Pfaadt<\/a>,\u00a0Geraldo Perdomo<\/a> and\u00a0Justin Martinez<\/a> will combine for $130MM in salaries next season. The Cardinals will send $9MM to Arizona at the end of the year to offset a good chunk of Arenado\u2019s salary, so the Snakes essentially have $121MM in guaranteed commitments.<\/p>\n Between that and the arbitration class, they\u2019d have around $137MM on the books before outside acquisitions or players on league minimum salaries to round out the roster. Next year\u2019s minimum is to be determined in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. If that lands around $1MM, the Snakes would essentially have a $150MM payroll going into the winter.<\/p>\n The D-Backs will need to add a couple veterans to a bullpen that\u2019ll have Martinez,\u00a0Brandyn Garcia<\/a> and\u00a0Juan Morillo<\/a> in the leverage mix. They\u2019re going to need to replace or re-sign Soroka, with whom there\u2019s mutual interest<\/a> in a reunion. Even if they manage to retain him, they should add another starter with swing-and-miss ability. They need to upgrade a first base position that was MLB\u2019s worst in 2026. Backup catcher and a utility infielder are other potential needs.<\/p>\n Arizona presumably won\u2019t try to address that all via free agency. It wouldn\u2019t be surprising if they discuss Marte in trade conversations after he no-showed for another game in August. They could also leverage their outfield depth on the trade market, as they have four outfielders who could provide above-average production if healthy: Carroll, Nootbaar,\u00a0Jordan Lawlar<\/a> and\u00a0Ryan Waldschmidt<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Diamondbacks came up two games shy of a playoff spot despite running a franchise-high payroll. Their spending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-918903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}