Detroit Tigers: Financial outlook over next few years

Detroit Tigers fans have long seen the team operate with a high payroll. That’s beginning to change, with recent trades creating more financial flexibility. In the future the payroll will continue to shrink.

Detroit Tigers executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager Al Avila inherited a team from his predecessor in Dave Dombrowski that wasn’t exactly cheap from a payroll standpoint.

The Tigers routinely spent with the league’s best in pursuit of an elusive World Series trophy.

Now, with the club in a full-on rebuild, the payroll is coming down.

In-season trades of starting pitcher Justin Verlander, outfielders J.D. Martinez and Justin Upton, closer Justin Wilson and catcher Alex Avila helped get the ball rolling in terms of paring down the team’s financial commitments.

More moves are likely to come this winter as Detroit could conceivably trade a number of other veterans.

Here is a look at how the Detroit Tigers financial outlook will change over the coming seasons.

It obviously doesn’t take into account potential free agent signings this winter or in the future.

All told, Detroit’s payroll will be going down over the next few seasons.

Long-term, this is a definite positive.

The franchise may not return to the spending ways of the last decade, but the Tigers having financial flexibility when the team returns to contention will allow for more room to make additions to bolster the team.

This offseason

The biggest change for the Detroit Tigers so far this offseason—at least from a financial standpoint—has been Anibal Sanchez’ departure.

Detroit declined the 2018 option on Sanchez’ contract, making him a free agent.

His $16 million salary, per Spotrac, coming off the books certainly helps matters.

The Tigers also lost Andrew Romine on waivers to the Seattle Mariners on Thursday.

Romine’s presence on the bench will certainly be missed in the Motor City. However, his departure also helps Detroit save some extra cash.

According to Spotrac, the veteran took home $1.3 million last season. MLBTradeRumors projects he will make $1.9 million through arbitration this winter.

The Tigers can shed further salary by trading second baseman Ian Kinsler and shortstop Jose Iglesias.

Neither veteran exactly fits the rebuild in Detroit. Per Spotrac, Kinsler is making $11 million in 2018 before becoming a free agent.

Meanwhile, Iglesias MLBTradeRumors projects that the shortstop will earn $5.6 million next year. It’s his last season of controllability before he too reaches the free agent market.

Detroit will obviously have to hand out arbitration raises to outfielder Nicholas Castellanos, catcher James McCann and relievers Shane Greene and Alex Wilson.

There’s also Jordan Zimmermann’s contract, which will see the starter’s annual salary rise from $18 million (according to Spotrac) to $24 million.

However, with Sanchez and Romine gone and Kinsler and Iglesias potentially following, there’s a chance Detroit could save some serious cash this offseason.