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Adding Suarez means the Reds will have their highest Opening Day payroll in team history, projected at $131 million. Suarez is their highest-paid player, and just two other Reds will make even $10 million. The crop of prospects the Reds brought to the majors a few years ago is starting to get paid, so players like Spencer Steer, Nick Lodolo, Matt McLain, and TJ Freidl are getting bumps over the minimum. Long-term deals for Hunter Greene and Jose Trevino have built-in raises. The Reds won’t have many players at the minimum this year, and those escalations to seven figures add up. Cot’s has the Reds with a top-20 payroll this year, a level they haven’t reached since 2021.
If the Reds get the attendance bump they should get after last year’s playoff run, they’ll comfortably cover the payroll increase and have even more to spend in the future. This is the virtuous circle that drove baseball for the 100 years before aggressive revenue sharing broke the relationship between wins and profitability.
