Chicago Cubs Payroll and Player Salaries 2009
Hey Cubs fans. Let’s talk a moment about the business side of baseball. We’re going to discuss the Chicago Cubs player salaries today and the Chicago Cubs 2009 payroll. I’m also going to rant a little bit about player salaries, but perhaps not in the way you might be expecting.
I’ve tried to list every Chicago Cubs player salary for 2009 I can find as accurately as possible. I can’t claim they’re perfect because I occasionally see different numbers from different resources but these salary figures below seem to be the consensus. It’s hard to find salary info on Cubs players called up from the minors during the season, but it is safe to assume almost all make the Major League minimum salary of $400,000.
So for your information and enjoyment, here are the salaries of the 2009 Chicago Cubs:
Chicago Cubs Player Salaries 2009
Milton Bradley – $7,000,000
Neil Cotts – $1,100,000
Ryan Dempster – $9,000,000
Mike Fontenot – $430,000
Ryan Freel – $4,000,000
Kosuke Fukudome – $12,500,000
Kevin Gregg – $4,200,000
Angel Guzman – $421,500
Rich Harden – $7,000,000
Aaron Heilman – $1,625,000
Koyie Hill – $475,000
Micha Hoffpauir – $407,500
Reed Johnson – $3,000,000
Derrek Lee – $13,250,000
Ted Lilly – $13,000,000
Carlos Marmol – $575,000
Sean Marshall – $450,000
Aaron Miles – $2,200,000
David Patton – $400,000
Aramis Ramirez – $16,650,000
Alfonso Soriano – $17,000,000
Geovany Soto – $575,000
Ryan Theriot – $500,000
Carlos Zambrano – $18,750,000
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Who is the highest paid Chicago Cub for the 2009 season?
The highest paid Chicago Cub is Carlos Zambrano, who will make $18,750,000 for the 2009 season. Not bad huh? I don’t know about you but I was a bit surprised because I had just assumed the highest paid Cub was Alfonso Soriano. Carlos Zambrano is the #3 highest paid pitcher in all of Baseball behind C.C. Sabathia at $23,000,000 a year and Johan Santana at $22,916,667 a year. He’s a bargain compared to those guys. I think Zambrano owes a big thanks to Barry Zito, Zito’s agent Scott Boras and whoever the retarded general manager of the Giants is that gave Zito an $18,000,000 a year contract right before Big Z signed his, driving up the salary for starting pitchers immensely.
Top Five Highest Paid Chicago Cubs for 2009 Season
Carlos Zambrano – $18,750,000
Alfonso Soriano – $17,000,000
Aramis Ramirez – $16,650,000
Derrek Lee – $13,250,000
Ted Lilly – $13,000,000
Chicago Cubs Team Payroll 2009
The Chicago Cubs 2009 Payroll is $135.1 million, which is the highest payroll in the National League and third in major league baseball behind the #1 Yankees (surprise, surprise) at $201.4 million and the New York Mets at $135.7 million (high payroll for a team that has missed the playoffs for two straight years). $135 Million is a heck of a payroll, so anyone who thinks the Cubs aren’t spending enough really needs to look at the facts.
The payroll number will continue to go up the next few years even without major additions because the Cubs have so many players with back loaded contracts, meaning their salaries increase from year to year throughout the contract rather than being spread out more evenly. This has become Jim Hendry’s trick to sign high priced players. You just assume their payroll will go up from year to year and use this assumption to add more dollars to current free agent offers. Time will tell whether this was a good idea or not.
The team payroll does change throughout the season as players are added and subtracted from the roster, and I have no idea how to figure partial salaries for players. Also, not every Cubs player has information available. But overall, this $135.1 million number is a fairly accurate 2009 Cubs payroll.
My Thoughts on Player Salaries
Baseball players overall are a very well compensated group of professional athletes. They’re an elite group of athletes and as easy as they make it look day in day out – it’s not. There are very few people in the entire world who can throw a 95 mph fastball, let alone with pin-point accuracy, or for that matter, hit that fastball 400 feet.
These are some of the best athletes in the world and they work for a company (Major League Baseball) who makes a LOT of money. A TON of money. They sell tickets (over 78 MILLION of them in 2008!, hats, jerseys, and just about anything you can think of. And they sell TV and radio broadcast rights and of course advertising. Major League Baseball is making a lot of money and they can afford to pay their players (employees) a lot of money in return. Sounds fair to me.
This is a free market, and wages are set by supply and demand. Why do MLB players get paid so much? Because so few people can do what they do. Why do McDonalds employees get paid so little? Because anyone with an 9th grade education or above can do it. That’s just how it is and deal with it. If you could throw a 95 mph fastball then you could be a millionaire too. Odds are though, you weren’t born with those skills (because it is something you’re born with) and even if you were, the odds of you being able to get the coaching and opportunity to even develop those skills is slim.
I don’t believe you should judge a player by his salary. I know it’s hard not to have high expectations based on a high salary but we all know there’s no correlation between salaries and performance. Don’t blame the player who makes a ton of money; blame the general manager or the team owner. They’re the ones who pay the salary and offer the contract.
It’s so easy to look at their salaries and go “That’s insane! That’s ridiculous!” and you might be right. And you would be right in saying “Why do athletes get paid so much and teachers get paid so little?” and you won’t get any argument from me that teachers are underpaid. But this is the USA, and in the USA you have a right to make as much money as you can or want to as long as you don’t hurt anyone else. Do you really want the government to start regulating everyone’s salaries?
If your employer offered to increase your salary by 1000% would you say: “Gee, I don’t know boss, I’m not sure I’m really worth that much. That puts expectations on me that I’m not certain I can live up to. That’s way to much to pay someone for what I do“?
OF COURSE YOU WOULDN’T!!! You would take the money! Maybe you would even ask for more while you’re at it. But I guarantee you would never tell your boss that you’re being paid too much and to lower their salary offer. Stop being angry, stop being jealous and just accept it.
“For a hundred years the owners screwed the players. For 25 years the players have screwed the owners – they’ve got 75 years to go.“ – Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton
Contracts are a lose-lose proposition for management as far as the fans reactions are concerned. Fans always want their team to get better and they always want to pick up quality free agents. Free agents though are far from free; the only way to get a “marquee” free agent is to OVERPAY them. If your teams GM doesn’t offer the player a big contract, they’ll just jump ship and go to another team who will pay them what they want. The general manager will get slammed by the fans for being too cheap for not signing them. But if they do sign that player for the money he wants, the same people will turn around and criticize the general manager for paying them too much. Can’t win. Forget about it!
Stop blaming the “overpaid” players. If you must be angry about player salaries, blame the people who pay them. If it makes you so mad, stop paying for tickets and merchandise. Ultimately, we’re the ones who fund player salaries. And please, stop spending all your time complaining about salaries on forums, blogs and talk radio. I’m sick of hearing about it.
Or better yet, how about you don’t even think about it and just enjoy watching baseball?
