With last Friday’s exercise of Cole Hamels’ 2019 option for $20 million and the trade of Drew Smyly to the Rangers, the Cubs’ estimated payroll and luxury tax hits look like this:
Cubs estimated salaries and tax hits for 2019
| Player | Salary | Tax hit |
|---|---|---|
| Player | Salary | Tax hit |
| Jon Lester | $25,000,000 | $25,833,333 |
| Jason Heyward | $20,000,000 | $23,000,000 |
| Yu Darvish | $20,000,000 | $21,000,000 |
| Cole Hamels | $20,000,000 | $20,000,000 |
| Kris Bryant | $13,000,000 | $13,000,000 |
| Tyler Chatwood | $12,500,000 | $12,666,667 |
| Ben Zobrist | $12,000,000 | $14,000,000 |
| Anthony Rizzo | $11,000,000 | $5,857,000 |
| Jose Quintana | $10,500,000 | $10,500,000 |
| Brandon Morrow | $9,000,000 | $10,500,000 |
| Kyle Hendricks | $8,200,000 | $8,200,000 |
| Steve Cishek | $6,500,000 | $6,500,000 |
| Pedro Strop | $6,250,000 | $6,250,000 |
| Javier Baez | $6,200,000 | $6,200,000 |
| Brandon Kintzler | $5,000,000 | $5,000,000 |
| Addison Russell | $4,250,000 | $4,250,000 |
| Brian Duensing | $3,500,000 | $3,500,000 |
| Kyle Schwarber | $3,200,000 | $3,200,000 |
| Mike Montgomery | $2,300,000 | $2,300,000 |
| Carl Edwards Jr. |