Four Cincinnati Reds players earned bonuses for their performance in the 2025 season according to the Associated Press. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, pre-arbitration players can earn additional money from a “bonus pool” that every team in baseball contributes equally to and is worth $50,000,000. That money is then handed out based on certain MLB Awards and then an unspecified WAR calculation that was agreed to between MLB and the MLBPA to the top 100 players among that group.
Elly De La Cruz got the largest bonus among the four Reds players who got a part of that bonus pool money. He earned an additional $631,080 after playing in all 162 games and hitting .264/.336/.440 with 60 extra-base hits and 37 stolen bases. That is almost as much as he made from Cincinnati for his season as he was making the league minimum. In 2025 that was just $760,000.
Andrew Abbott, who made his first All-Star team in 2025, also got a sizeable bonus from the pre-arb bonus pool. The left-handed starter had his best season as a big leaguer and earned himself $520,065 on top of his league minimum salary after going 10-7 with a 2.87 ERA in 166.1 innings pitched for the Reds.
Center fielder TJ Friedl got in on the bonus pool money this year, too. He played in 152 games and hit .261/.364/.378 with 22 doubles, two triples, and 14 home runs for Cincinnati. That got him an extra $439,167 at the end of the year to go along with his league minimum salary.
The final player from the Reds who got a bonus was second baseman Matt McLain. 100 players qualify for the bonus pool and McLain was the 99th player on the list. As such, he got a lower bonus than everyone but one other player. McLain played in 147 games and hit just .220/.300/.343 but had 33 extra-base hits and went 18-for-20 in stolen base attempts. Depending on where you look, he also was one of the more valuable defensive second baseman in the game. That got him a bonus of $206,056 to go along with his league minimum salary.
Baseball’s compensation system needs revision clearly. It’s hard to see a bonus to McLain regardless of his defense. The other three kind of make sense, but McLain just wasn’t a major contributor, IMO. Maybe he will be next year.
Agreed about McClain, he did not play near well enough for any kind of bonus. Hopefully, next year we will see the McClain of 2023.
McLains real bonus will be super two status. And that is something he certainly does NOT deserve. Management obviously wasn’t paying attention and now they will PAY!
Any system where Mc Clain gets a raise is seriously broken
Who is Mc Clain? Are they related to Mc Hammer?
Santillan deserved better.
I agree….
The Reds lost more games than they should have this year partly because of Matt McLain’s performance… He’s very lucky to be considered for getting this bonus…
Santillan had a 3.0 war as a reliever.
Or he had a 1.1 WAR. It depends on which version you are using. It seems that whichever version the MLB and MLBPA agreed to use is closer to Fangraphs which had him at 1.1 WAR.
I agree Santillan added more to the team. I feel like McLain will bounce back. Just read that Fraley signed with Tampa. I wish him nothing but the best. What a good and classy guy.
Lots of people in here talking trash about Matt McLain getting a bonus and how he didn’t deserve it.
This system pays the top 100 pre-arbitration eligible players. There are only 780 active players on an MLB roster at a given time. Only 348 players even had 200 plate appearances in 2025. 339 players threw 50 innings in 2025.
Among that group of players take out anyone who has more than three years of service time. That is a lot of players who are not eligible for these bonuses.
Its a numbers game. And the number of players eligible here who also had any real sort of playing time is low.
This guy gets it. People just want to complain and never let the facts get in the way. The reality is that most pre-arb players who play full-time get a bonus under this system. It was just something the players association bargained for so those making league minimum can get a little more money. It’s stupid to trash McLain and claim he didn’t deserve his bonus. He absolutely deserved it, as it was collectively bargained for, and he was one of the top 100 players (of the barely more than 100) who qualified. Simple as that. Sure, Santillan was great. But there are very few value calculations that allow relievers to move very high up those lists. They just don’t pitch enough to compile those stats.
Great posts, Brian and Luke. All these guys deserve their money. Pre-arb guys are usually just making the MLB minimum, so any extra they get is well-deserved.
If people want to complain about players that are overcompensated, look more at some of the veterans making $10 million plus. I promise you, that’s where you will find guys who were overpaid…
Really good post, including the follow-ups!
I am not made the McLain got a bonus, but I am surprised since he did have such a down year. Hope he makes a nice comeback next season.
The Reds would be smart to have a backup plan in case Matt McClain has turned into a pumpkin. There are lots of guys who can outperform his 2025 record at 2B.