Follow our new Twitter account for real-time updates and in-depth analysis of all things Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs have eight arbitration eligible players this offseason, which means eight guys are about to get a pay raise on the North Side and none bigger than Javier Baez.
A couple days ago MLB Trade Rumors released its annual arbitration projected salaries for 2019, and obviously the most eye-popping projection is Baez going from $657,000 in 2018 to about $7.1 million for 2019. That’s nearly a 1,000% pay increase.
Get that money!
A reminder, these are only projections, but MLBTR does a great job on these and most of these have been spot in the past.
Follow our new Twitter account for real-time updates and in-depth analysis of all things Chicago Cubs.
So, here are the projections compared to their 2018 salaries for the eight arbitration Cubs players.
| Player | 2018 salary | 2019 projected arbitration salary |
| Kris Bryant | $10.85 million | $12.4 million |
| Kyle Hendricks | $4.175 million | $7.6 million |
| Javier Baez | $657,000 | $7.1 million |
| Addison Russell | $3.2 million | $4.3 million |
| Kyle Schwarber | $604,500 | $3.1 million |
| Mike Montgomery | $611,250 | $3 million |
| Carl Edwards Jr. | $594,000 | $1.4 million |
| Tommy La Stella | $950,000 | $1.2 million |
Baez, Schwarber and Montgomery are all in their first year of arbitration.
Last year Bryant’s $10.85 million salary set a new record for the highest first-year arbitration salary in MLB history. If it wasn’t for his shoulder injury this year his projected salary for 2019 probably would be closer to $15 million.
The other big increases are Hendricks, Schwarber and Montgomery. Meanwhile, it’ll be interesting to see what the Cubs do with Russell. Theo Epstein was asked point blank last week if Russell would play again for the Cubs following his 40-game suspension for domestic violence. Epstein said he didn’t know at that time.
There’s always the chance the Cubs could non-tender Russell, meaning they just don’t offer him a salary for 2019.
You can read more about how MLBTR does its formula to project these arbitration salaries here.
