Initial Estimate for the Pittsburgh Pirates 2023 Opening Day Payroll

As I indicated last week, after MLB Trade Rumors released their arbitration estimates for 2023, it is now officially time to release my initial payroll estimate for next season.

This basically works on the assumption that the team will do nothing over the offseason—no trades, no extensions, no free agent signings—just go with the status quo and only use in house options.

Of course, this isn’t realistic; however, I feel it’s an appropriate way to start the offseason projection. There’s no way of knowing what moves the team will make, so creating a baseline with all internal players shows basically where the team would be at the absolute minimum and adjusting from there every time a move is…