Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch Earned 2024 Bonuses

[Seth Stohs]

This is the third offseason that MLB has handed out performance bonuses to several deserving pre-arbitration players. This year, two Chicago Cubs rookies received a nice pre-holiday check for their 2024 efforts. 

Image courtesy of © Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

In 2023, three pre-arbitration Chicago Cubs earned performance-based bonuses. In 2024, just two players earned that same bonus. With some very exciting prospects on the cusp of the big leagues, they could have several recipients in a year. However, let's discuss this season's recipients. 

Michael Busch came to the Cubs in a trade last offseason. He had just 81 plate appearances in the big leagues with the Dodgers. He had a strong spring training and earned the starting first base job. The former first round pick from the University of North Carolina got off to a fast start in the regular season as well. In the season's first month, he posted an .833 OPS and had four doubles and six home runs. He had his ups and downs throughout the season, but the peaks weren't too crazy (high OPS for a month was .848 in June) and the valleys weren't too low (low OPS month was August .692). 

Overall, he hit .248/.335/.440 (.775) with 28 doubles and 21 home runs. According to FanGraphs, he was worth 2.3 WAR while he was valued at 2.8 WAR by Baseball Reference. 

For his efforts, he earned a bonus of $325,723. His salary for 2024 was $741,500, just over the league minimum of $740,000. The Minnesota native topped $1 million earned on the year and certainly hopes to continue to improve going forward. 

Pete Crow-Armstrong struggled at Triple-A Iowa early in the 2024 season as well as early with the big-league club. PCA had just 19 plate appearances last September for the Cubs. He really slumped in June, posted a .348 OPS. After an 0-for-3 on July 2nd, he was hitting .188/.238/.271 (65 games). However, injuries and his defense kept him in the big leagues and in the lineup most days. 

He responded well. In his final 71 games, he turned things around. He hit .264/.313/.448 and had 11 doubles, three triples and nine homers. He was stealing bases, and his center field defense is tremendous. Overall, he hit .237/.286/.384 (.670). Baseball Reference had him at 2.3 WAR while FanGraphs showed him at 2.7 WAR. 

His salary was at or just barely over the league minimum (or prorated to about 80% of the season), and he received a bonus of $342,128. By the end of the season, the 22-year-old former Mets top pick was playing loose, and with extreme confidence that should carry well for him into the 2025 season. 

As you may recall, the most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement set for a means for players with less than three years of service time to make some bonus money based on their performance that season. Each of the 30 teams contributes equally into the $50 million bonus pool. Eligible players can get huge bonuses based on award voting. For instance, winning an MVP award or a Cy Young Award means $2.5 million while second-place finishers earn $1.75 million and a third place finish is worth $1.5 million. Fourth or fifth place finishes earn a $1 million bonus. It's also $1 million if the player is named all-MLB first team. A Rookie of the Year Award earns a player $750,000, while a second place finish in rookie voting or being named to the all-MLB second team is worth a half-million dollars. (however a player can only earn one of those specific bonuses, receiving the higher of the values)

With his second-place finish in the AL MVP voting, Royals shortstop Bobby Witt, Jr. received the highest bonus of the year at just over $3 million. Paul Skenes was a finalist for both NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young. He earned about $2.15 million for his bonus. Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson came in just over $2 million. Also receiving a seven-figure bonus are Brewers C William Contreras, Royals LHP Cole Ragans ($1.64M), Red Sox OF Jarren Duran ($1.32M), Padres OF Jackson Merrill ($1.19M), and Yankees RHP Luis Gil ($1.1M). Brewers OF Jackson Chourio ($901,335) rounded out the Top 10, just behind Orioles OF Colton Cowser ($978,671). 

The remaining pool money is distributed to players based on a formula that combines multiple Wins Above Replacement (WAR) statistics. 

You might remember, last year, lefty Justin Steele tripled his earnings with a bonus of nearly $1.7 million. $1 million of that was because he finished fifth in Cy Young voting. The other two players who received a bonus in 2023 were Adbert Alzolay and Javier Assad. Steele and Alzolay were no longer pre-arbitration players.  

Because Shota Imanaga came into the league as a free agent from Japan, he received a large contract so he was ineligible for this bonus. 

Congratulations to PCA and Michael Busch!

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