Among the additions to the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was a pre-arbitration bonus pool for players who do not achieve Super Two status and are yet to accrue three years of Major League service time.
MLB and the Players Association (MLBPA) exchanged several figures over the course of negotiations before ultimately agreeing to a $50 million bonus pool.
A total of 100 players received bonuses this year, which are accrued through the “Joint WAR” metric and placement in end-of-the-year awards voting.
According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith was among the 11 players who received bonuses for placing in year-end awards after being named to the All-MLB Second Team:
The 11 players who earned more than $1 million from the $50 million pool received bonuses for placing in year-end awards, as did two others (Will Smith, Ryan Helsley) who checked in just shy of $1 million.
Tony Gonsolin also earned at least $500,000 as part of the pre-arbitration pool program:
Eleven other players earned at least $500,000 in the program: Steven Kwan, Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, Nestor Cortes, Logan Webb, Shane McClanahan, Cal Raleigh, Daulton Varsho, Nico Hoerner, Triston McKenzie and Tony Gonsolin.
Smith and Gonsolin are among the Dodgers’ players eligible for salary arbitration this offseason, with the latter qualifying for Super Two status.
Smith is coming off another productive season, batting .260/.343/.465 with 26 doubles, 24 home runs and 87 RBI while averaging 4.1 WAR between FanGraphs’ and Baseball Reference’s respective calculations.
Gonsolin enjoyed a career year, going 16-1 with a 2.14 ERA, 3.28 FIP and 0.88 WHIP in 130.1 innings pitched (24 starts) while averaging 3.7 WAR.
Dylan Cease earned highest bonus in pre-arbitration bonus money
Dylan Cease topped all eligible players with $2,457,426 in bonuses. Yordan Alvarez ($2,381,143) and Alek Manoah ($2,191,023) were the only other players who received bonuses of at least $2 million.
Meanwhile, Zac Gallen, Julio Rodríguez, Michael Harris II, Emmanuel Clase, Andrés Giménez, Adley Rutschman, Kyle Tucker and Spencer Strider were among the eight others who received bonuses worth at least $1 million.
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