Kyle Schwarber Avoids Arbitration with $3.39 Million Salary

As first reported by Gordon Wittenmyer, the Cubs have settled with Kyle Schwarber on a salary of $3.39 million for 2019. That’s around $290,000 more than MLB Trade Rumors had projected and is roughly $2.7 million more than he earned last season. Combined with Kyle Hendricks’ $7.4 million, the Cubs are trending right around those early projections.

That’s at least somewhat notable since there’d been some concern that they’d try to get a little cheap with their arb filings. Not that a combined $10.8 million for Hendricks and Schwarber isn’t a steal, but it wouldn’t be a surprise for a team so concerned with payroll to try and shave a few dollars here or there. At the same time, these two players weren’t the most likely to face hardball negotiations.

The Cubs still have five arbitration-eligible players left to go, with Kris Bryant, Javy Baez, Mike Montgomery, Carl Edwards, Jr., and Addison Russell yet to be determined.