1B Joey Votto currently has the Reds' highest salary, making $25M in base pay this seasonGETTY IMAGES
The Reds have an estimated payroll of $102M this season, which ranks 21st in MLB, and President of Baseball Operations Dick Williams is hopeful the team will "have a bigger budget to fill holes on the Major League roster next season," according to Bobby Nightengale of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. Williams said, "That's the internal plan. What we've said is that we've always tried to put as much of (the payroll) on the field as we can. We now feel like the last couple of years, we've taken a lot of our resources and allocated them into the amateur draft, the international market. We hope that can shift back toward Major League payroll." He added, "For the first time in a couple of years, I firmly believe we'll have a raised payroll." Despite the second half of the season still to be played, Williams said that he "sensed it would be a 'nice increase' in payroll." Williams: "I'm not talking like 1 or 2 percent. But it's too early to know for sure. A lot of it will depend on how we play the rest of the year, the support we get from the fans and strategic decisions we make about where our investments will go in the offseason -- payroll or otherwise." Meanwhile, Nightengale noted with the Reds last in the NL Central, attendance is down about 16.5% from the "same point last season." The Reds currently rank 24th in MLB in average home attendance, "averaging 20,296 fans per game" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 7/10).
PHILLIES READY TO SPEND: The Phillies enter today leading the NL East, and MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki said the team is "definitely not afraid to add payroll" prior to the July 31 trade deadline because their payroll right now "is pretty low." Zolecki said, "The last few years, everything they’ve been doing is setting themselves up for this upcoming offseason, so they purposely kept their payroll low. That works out well right now, because if a team wants to dump a high salary guy, the Phillies can give them next to nothing and say, ‘We’ll take on all of his salary.’" He added of the Phillies' front office, "They are smart enough to know that if you sit by and do nothing in July, that doesn’t send a very good message” (“High Heat,” MLB Network, 7/10).
