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Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
The right-handed hurler became the latest young Braves player to get some extra money thanks to the pre-arbitration bonus pool. I’d imagine that Spencer Schwellenbach is pretty happy to be himself on any given day but today was likely a better day than usual. That’s because Schwellenbach was one of 100 MLB players who received a nice little bonus via the pre-arbitration pool. He was the only Atlanta Braves player who ended up qualifying for the bonus pool money this season.
Here’s a quick explainer of how the pre-arbitration bonus pool works:
The allocation of the 2024 Major League Baseball pre-arbitration bonus pool, as determined by the collective bargaining agreement. An eligible player gets $2.5 million for winning a MVP or Cy Young Award, $1.75 million for second in the voting, $1.5 million for third, $1 million for fourth, fifth or all-MLB first team, $750,000 for Rookie of the Year, $500,000 for second in Rookie of the Year voting or all-MLB second team. A player is eligible to receive a bonus for only one award per year, for the highest amount eligible for. The remaining money is allocated by a WAR formula
While Schwellenbach quite clearly didn’t come close to winning any of those aforementioned awards or accolades, he ended up qualifying via the WAR formula. As a result, Schwellenbach will be taking home an extra $365,752. As a reminder, Schwellenbach was paid the league minimum of $740,000 over the course of his rookie season and with the addition of the bonus money, he ended up getting $1,105,752 for 2024. It may not be the $3 million or $2 million that Bobby Witt Jr. and Paul Skenes racked up in pre-arb bonus money, respectively, this year but that’s still a nice bit of bonus money for Schwellenbach to have following a very solid rookie season.
Spencer Schwellenbach pitched 123.2 innings over 21 starts and finished with an ERA of 3.35, a FIP of 2.29, an ERA- of 80 and a FIP- of 83 on the season. He produced 2.6 FanGraphs WAR and 2.7 Baseball-Reference WAR for the year, which placed him in the top top 10 among rookies in both formulas. He’ll be eligible for arbitration in 2026.
The pre-arbitration bonus pool has been around since 2022 as part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement. 2023 was a big year for Braves players — Spencer Strider received $1,692,833, Michael Harris II racked up $576,627 and Bryce Elder collected $392,639. Money Mike was a big winner in 2022 as he picked up $1,361,435 following his excellent rookie season and Strider added $1,077,294 to his name during that 2022 campaign as well.
<img alt="New York MetsLos Angeles Dodgers v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5cNmD1-v4tW51Y2FE9Nq8p1bmyA=/0x0:8640x5760/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73786254/2173487275.0.jpg">
Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
The right-handed hurler became the latest young Braves player to get some extra money thanks to the pre-arbitration bonus pool. I’d imagine that Spencer Schwellenbach is pretty happy to be himself on any given day but today was likely a better day than usual. That’s because Schwellenbach was one of 100 MLB players who received a nice little bonus via the pre-arbitration pool. He was the only Atlanta Braves player who ended up qualifying for the bonus pool money this season.
Here’s a quick explainer of how the pre-arbitration bonus pool works:
The allocation of the 2024 Major League Baseball pre-arbitration bonus pool, as determined by the collective bargaining agreement. An eligible player gets $2.5 million for winning a MVP or Cy Young Award, $1.75 million for second in the voting, $1.5 million for third, $1 million for fourth, fifth or all-MLB first team, $750,000 for Rookie of the Year, $500,000 for second in Rookie of the Year voting or all-MLB second team. A player is eligible to receive a bonus for only one award per year, for the highest amount eligible for. The remaining money is allocated by a WAR formula
While Schwellenbach quite clearly didn’t come close to winning any of those aforementioned awards or accolades, he ended up qualifying via the WAR formula. As a result, Schwellenbach will be taking home an extra $365,752. As a reminder, Schwellenbach was paid the league minimum of $740,000 over the course of his rookie season and with the addition of the bonus money, he ended up getting $1,105,752 for 2024. It may not be the $3 million or $2 million that Bobby Witt Jr. and Paul Skenes racked up in pre-arb bonus money, respectively, this year but that’s still a nice bit of bonus money for Schwellenbach to have following a very solid rookie season.
Spencer Schwellenbach pitched 123.2 innings over 21 starts and finished with an ERA of 3.35, a FIP of 2.29, an ERA- of 80 and a FIP- of 83 on the season. He produced 2.6 FanGraphs WAR and 2.7 Baseball-Reference WAR for the year, which placed him in the top top 10 among rookies in both formulas. He’ll be eligible for arbitration in 2026.
The pre-arbitration bonus pool has been around since 2022 as part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement. 2023 was a big year for Braves players — Spencer Strider received $1,692,833, Michael Harris II racked up $576,627 and Bryce Elder collected $392,639. Money Mike was a big winner in 2022 as he picked up $1,361,435 following his excellent rookie season and Strider added $1,077,294 to his name during that 2022 campaign as well.
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