Alex Wood won his arbitration case against the Reds today. He’ll be paid $9.65 million for 2019. When you add Zach Duke’s $2 million deal to the pile, the Reds payroll number is pretty close to final, pending any new signings. Here’s where it stands:
That’s an increase of about $20 million over last year. But it’s the highest payroll in Reds history only if you ignore inflation. Both the 2014 ($114 million) and 2015 ($115 million) numbers were higher when adjusted for everything being more expensive. Remember this chart from this post about ownership, wealth and money.