According to Cots OD payroll was 99 million in 2021 & is 132 million in 2022, payroll was raised pretty significantly. 33 million over last year & 10 million over the previous franchise high.
Of course most of that difference comes down to about 30 million in Arby’s raises that Burnes, Woody, Hader, Adames, Omar, Urias, Houser, Lauer, Rowdy, etc got, but that’s the price you have to pay when you have a 95 win team full of young talent.
Next year those Arby’s raises will likely be even more as everyone is another year deeper into the process, so losing Cain & McCutchen from the payroll prolly won’t be enough to cover it.
As you noted, we’ll likely already have to trade some of those Arby’s guys before they hit FA. Signing Castellanos would have made threading that needle even more difficult.