It seems like the 2023 season was just finished. The divisional round of the playoffs is still going on even though it was a little over a week ago. However, the Cincinnati Reds aren’t currently in competition, and the team needs to make some decisions soon on player options. They also need to start determining how much money they have set aside for the 2024 season.

Photo: Redleg Nation Staff

Except for Hunter Greene, no one is currently owed more money than the league minimum for the Cincinnati Reds in 2024. For Curt Casali and Joey Votto’s option years, the club will probably have to pay buyouts. When the Reds tender contracts to players who will be eligible for arbitration is one factor that will alter the calculations.

We talked about Cincinnati’s ten players that are eligible for arbitration last week. While some of the players are simple picks for 2024 contract offers, others require more thought. And now that MLB Trade Rumors has made their arbitration estimates public—which, although not always precise, frequently come very close—it sheds a little more light on the situation.

According to their estimates, each of the 10 players would receive the following amounts in the 2024 season’s arbitration hearings:

None of the ten Reds players are anticipated to earn a significant sum of money, with Jonathan India earning the highest wage from the group at $3,700,000. Given that he made the league minimum last year, the rise is significant—it’s almost five times what he made in 2023—but it’s still a pittance.

Hunter Greene is the only player currently under contract for 2024 who earns more than the league minimum, as was already mentioned. The Reds payroll would be slightly over $35,000,000 if we factor in his salary, all of those arbitration forecasts, plus the players making the league minimum to fill out the balance of the team.

This sum is little over $12,000,000 and excludes the buyouts anticipated for Curt Casali and Joey Votto as well as the money owed to Mike Moustakas.

The Reds should have a ton of money to spend on improving the team for 2024 given that the club “did way better than we thought we were going to do” in terms of bringing in money during the 2023 season, according to Senior VP of Business Operations Karen Forgus.

Also, according to Forgus, “every dollar we make is invested back in the organization, with practically all of it going to baseball operations. With all that more money flowing in, everything becomes bigger and you are able to accomplish more on the field and in player development. Always give that top priority.

We’ll see how that develops, but right now, the payroll is about as minimal as it gets. Additionally, the club has stated in the open that they made more money in 2023 than they had anticipated, which should enable them to accomplish “bigger things on the field”.