By re-signing Adam LaRoche to a two-year, $24 million deal the Nationals’ payroll is all but certain to rise above $100 million for the first time in franchise history, notes Mark Zuckerman of CSNWashington.com:
If the Nationals do as expected and trade Michael Morse that would shed $7 million from the 2013 payroll, although general manager Mike Rizzo insisted yesterday that there’s no financially driven motivation for dealing Morse. In other words, the Nationals have plenty of money even with their first $100-plus payroll on the horizon.
It has always been the intention of the organization, at the direction of the Lerner family, to steadily increase payroll as the club improved. The Nationals ranked near the bottom of the league in payroll through most of their first seven seasons of existence, bottoming out in 2007 with a total figure of only $37.3 million.
That number has steadily increased each of the last five years, with the Nationals’ Opening Day 2012 payroll of $92.5 million establishing a franchise record that will be broken once again in 2013.
If the Nationals do as expected and trade Michael Morse that would shed $7 million from the 2013 payroll, although general manager Mike Rizzo insisted yesterday that there’s no financially driven motivation for dealing Morse. In other words, the Nationals have plenty of money even with their first $100-plus payroll on the horizon.