Bullpen Payroll

Andrew Miller and David Robertson are about to receive huge contracts and people, not only Yankee fans, are curious where their destinations would be. Would it be reasonable to lock up Roberston with Papelbon-money? Would Miller be good for another four years?

The Royals this year showed how powerful it can be to have a number of dominant late inning relievers, and I think teams are willing to spend more and more money to sign with those outstanding relievers available. I was curious how much teams are spending on their bullpen.

Luckily, Wendy Thurm already wrote about this at Fangraphs so it saved me a lot of time. Here is the chart she made:

Rank	Team	Projected 2014 Opening Day Payroll	Bullpen Combined Salary	Bullpen As % Payroll
1	Rays	$75,500,000	$17,669,750	23.40%
2	Athletics	$79,000,000	$17,840,000	22.60%
3	Royals	$91,000,000	$18,522,500	20.40%
4	Marlins	$42,500,000	$8,450,000	19.90%
5	Padres	$86,000,000	$16,600,000	19.30%
6	Nationals	$130,500,000	$25,125,000	19.25%
7	Reds	$106,000,000	$17,050,000	17%
8	Diamondbacks	$108,000,000	$17,975,000	16.60%
9	Rockies	$91,000,000	$14,950,000	16.40%
10	Cubs	$89,000,000	$14,375,000	16.20%
11	Astros	$49,000,000	$7,500,000	15.30%
12	Angels	$151,000,000	$22,887,500	15.20%
13	White Sox	$89,000,000	$13,350,000	15%
14	Giants	$147,000,000	$21,845,000	14.90%
15	Dodgers	$223,000,000	$32,900,000	14.75%
16	Twins	$82,500,000	$11,435,000	13.90%
17	Pirates	$71,500,000	$9,975,000	13.80%
18	Phillies	$175,500,000	$24,000,000	13.70%
19	Red Sox	$155,000,000	$20,400,000	13.20%
20	Indians	$80,000,000	$9,900,000	12.40%
21	Orioles	$105,000,000	$12,850,000	12.20%
22	Cardinals	$108,500,000	$13,000,000	12%
23	Mariners	$87,500,000	$10,250,000	11.80%
24	Braves	$96,000,000	$11,240,000	11.70%
25	Tigers	$161,000,000	$15,737,500	9.80%
26	Blue Jays	$136,000,000	$12,050,000	8.90%
27	Brewers	$100,500,000	$8,700,000	8.70%
28	Mets	$82,000,000	$6,700,000	8.20%
29	Rangers	$131,000,000	$9,000,000	6.90%
30	Yankees	$197,500,000	$12,480,000	6.30%

The Yankees spent the least amount, at least when we looked at the ratio. I am sure this will not be the same for 2015, because 12.48M won't get either of Robertson or Miller and I imagine the Yankees will sign (at least) one of them.

It was weird to see the Rays on the top, as they pay only 1.45M to McGee and even less to Boxberger and other relievers. They pay $12M to Balfour but 2014 portion of it was only 4. I'm not exactly sure how she got 17M for the Rays, but I'll just take her word for it.

Now I became curious if those were effective spending. From Fangraphs, I got the cumulative stats for relievers, and sorted by WAR.

Rank	Team	Reliever WAR
1	Royals	5.9
2	Yankees	5.9
3	Red Sox	5.6
4	Nationals	5.2
5	Orioles	4.6
6	Marlins	4.6
7	Mariners	4.5
8	Cubs	4.5
9	Phillies	4.3
10	Athletics	4
11	Rangers	4
12	Braves	3.8
13	Angels	3.7
14	Padres	3.4
15	Indians	3.1
16	Rays	3
17	Diamondbacks	2.6
18	Cardinals	2.3
19	Twins	2
20	Brewers	1.9
21	Rockies	1.5
22	Blue Jays	1.3
23	Reds	1.1
24	Pirates	0.7
25	White Sox	0.7
26	Dodgers	0.7
27	Tigers	0.6
28	Giants	0.5
29	Astros	0.4
30	Mets	-1.6

I computed R between Bullpen as % Payroll and Reliever WAR, and got .1991, weak. (Using $ gives you .1591, still weak. Without even any calculations, 30th Yankees in % Payroll was tied for the 1st in Reliever WAR, so it is not much related, although as you would imagine if you spend more money it is going to be hard to be worse.