Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. received roughly $3.08MM from the pre-arbitration bonus pool, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Pirates righty Paul Skenes ($2.15MM) and Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson ($2MM) round out the top three.
The most recent collective bargaining agreement introduced a $50MM pool that is divided among players who have yet to accrue enough service time to reach arbitration. (Each team commits around $1.67MM to that fund every season.) The goal was to help highly-performing young players get paid earlier in their careers. Players are eligible even if they’ve signed a contract extension, as Witt did before the season. Despite inking a deal approaching $289MM, he’ll pick up a little more than $3MM as a result of his fantastic ’24 campaign.
A player receives $2.5MM for winning MVP or Cy Young. They’re awarded $1.75MM for a runner-up finish, $1.5MM for third place, and $1MM for fourth or fifth place. The Rookie of the Year winner in each league gets $750K, while the runners-up pick up $500K. Players named first-team All-MLB receive $1MM; a second-team All-MLB placement is worth $500K.
Players cannot double-up on those accolades. They’re paid in line with the highest award honors they received. Witt was the MVP runner-up in the American League. Skenes finished third in Cy Young voting. Henderson placed fourth in MVP voting.
After the award money is paid out, the remaining funds are divided between the top 100 eligible players based on a predetermined Wins Above Replacement formula which was mutually approved by MLB and the Players Association. William Contreras, Cole Ragans, Jarren Duran, Jackson Merrill and Luis Gil were the other players to top $1MM this year. The Associated Press lists every player who received some money based on their WAR totals — going down to Sal Frelick at a little over $232K.
