3 Cubs Get Supplemental Paydays via MLB Pre-Arbitration Bonus Pool

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

As part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement between the players union and MLB, an annual bonus pool was created to pay players who accumulated significant on-field value and/or finished highly in balloting for the league's major awards, in seasons in which they did not yet qualify for arbitration. It was one small (and ultimately inadequate) way to shift money from highly paid veterans (often on the decline) and underpaid young stars of the game, and it's made a significant difference in the earning power of players over their first two or three years in the league.

The bonuses paid to several dozen players were announced Tuesday, and three Cubs saw their 2025 earnings substantially boosted. Pete Crow-Armstrong, who was on the All-MLB second team and put up impressive totals in wins above replacement, earned an extra $1,206,207, which is just shy of double his salary for the season. Between that extra infusion of cash; winning a Gold Glove Award; a playoff share; and his massive marketability (which has already yielded some lucrative endorsement opportunities), Crow-Armstrong got much richer this year. Whatever leverage the Cubs hoped to wield in negotiations over a contract extension when they began them in the spring has evaporated. Crow-Armstrong is still in position to hit free agency relatively young, and he'll qualify for arbitration as a Super Two player in 2027. He's holding all the cards.

Cade Horton got $500,000 for his runner-up finish in the Rookie of the Year voting, and made a total of $852,806 in bonuses after adding the amount he earned via WAR calculations. That's more than he made in salary, too, and he gets the non-monetary (but extremely lucrative) added benefit of getting a full year of service time for 2025, thanks to getting those Rookie of the Year votes. He's now set to become a free agent after 2030, just as Crow-Armstrong is. He, too, leaped forward in terms of his career earning potential this season, thanks to the new rules that came into effect in the last CBA.

Nothing, however, can save the earning power of a late-blooming first baseman. Michael Busch, who arguably had the best season of any Cub, got just $483,108 for his efforts. This was Busch's age-27 season, and while he made the most of it, he's not eligible for arbitration until 2027, and can't become a free agent until the end of 2029. By then, he's likely to be moving out of his prime. The Cubs have little incentive to extend him, and he has little chance to make All-MLB teams or rack up WAR, because of his position and the way the statistics are calculated. He'll be grateful for the extra money, which will be over $500,000 once his playoff share is heaped on top of it, but Busch didn't hit the same kind of jackpot as his younger, more celebrated teammates—even though he had a tremendous breakout campaign.

These initiatives—the bonus payments and the service-time rewards—are a great step forward for the game, giving young stars more leverage and more power. It only makes the Cubs' job harder, because extending Crow-Armstrong looks like a very expensive endeavor at this point. So be it. The team will have to either swallow its worries and make a splash, or accept the risks that come with going year to year with franchise cornerstones. In the meantime, for Crow-Armstrong, Horton and Busch, these are just desserts for a job extremely well done.

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