Red Sox will likely cut some arb eligible players

Red Sox will likely cut some arb eligible players

Alright, so the Boston Red Sox are going to be making some moves other than free agency.

I know there's a lot of talk about who may and may not be gone from the team headed into the 2020 MLB season but here's the thing, there will be even more guys gone than you may have originally imagined.

The reason for this is because of the bucket load of arbitration eligible players the team currently has in its system. According to MLB Trade Rumors, the projected payroll for the 2020 Red Sox would be $218 million at this moment. That is unacceptable. The owners want the figure to be $208 million -- plus they're going to have to sign some free agents to help the team win.

According to MassLive, here are the arbitration earning projections, "Jackie Bradley Jr., $11 million; Sandy Leon, $2.8 million; Chris Owings, $3.0 million; Mookie Betts, $27.7 million; Brandon Workman, $3.4 million; Steven Wright, $1.5 million; Eduardo Rodriguez, $9.5 million; Matt Barnes, $3.0 million; Heath Hembree, $1.6 million; Andrew Benintendi, $4.9 million; Marco Hernandez, $700,000; Gorkys Hernandez, $1.0 million."

OK, so if you're cutting fiscal waste, this is pretty easy. There's no way in heck Chris Owings and Gorkys Hernandez can stay in the organization. After that, Leon isn't worth more than the league minimum and Steven Wright is a domestic violence guy, so they should both be out. Those are the easy ones.

Frankly, they'll probably have to do something about Jackie Bradley Jr. if he's going to make around $11 million. That could make him a prime trade candidate if the team is trying to keep Mookie Betts. However, Betts' big money could make him tradable as well.

They'll probably keep Hembree and then the rest of the guys are locks to stay in the organization, it seems.

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