How much do the Giants have to spend this offseason?

Even with several big contracts still on the books in 2020, the San Francisco Giants will have some money to spend this offseason. How much?

The San Francisco Giants wrapped up the 2019 season with a team payroll of $178,582,126, according to Spotrac.

That was the fifth-highest payroll in baseball, behind only the Boston Red Sox ($229M), Chicago Cubs ($218M), New York Yankees ($218M) and Los Angeles Dodgers ($201M).

The bad news from a payroll standpoint is that the Giants’ six highest-paid players will all return in 2020, and that group as a whole was not particularly productive this past season. Here’s a look at how much they count against the team’s luxury tax figure:

• Johnny Cueto: $21.7 million AAV
• Buster Posey: $18.6 million AAV
• Jeff Samardzija: $18 million AAV
• Brandon Belt: $14.56 million AAV
• Brandon Crawford: $12.5 million AAV
• Evan Longoria: $11.165 million

That comes to roughly $96.525 million for six guys that combined for a meager 7.5 WAR last season.

While those are the only six players under contract, the team also has six arbitration-eligible players who are projected to earn the following:

• Kevin Pillar: $9.7 million
• Kyle Barraclough: $2.1 million
• Alex Dickerson: $1.2 million
• Donovan Solano: $1.2 million
• Joey Rickard: $1.1 million
• Wandy Peralta: $800,000

That’s another $16.1 million projected if all six of those players return, which is far from a foregone conclusion for anyone besides Dickerson and Solano.

Still, if we assume that all six come back, we’re at $112.625 million for 12 players.

If the other 13 players on the roster earn the league-minimum salary, which will likely be somewhere around $560,000 in 2020, we are now up to $119.905 million.

Spotrac factors in another $15 million for “estimated player benefits” and $2.5 million for “minor league contracts” which brings us to right around $137.4 million.

The luxury tax threshold, which teams are forced to pay a penalty if they exceed, will be set at $208 million for the 2020 season.

So how much do the San Francisco Giants have to spend this offseason?

Assuming the bring back all of their arbitration-eligible players, a little over $70 million.

The team will not want to be backed up against that tax threshold, so it’s unlikely they’ll approach that number, but they could conceivably spend $40-50 million without putting themselves in a bind financially.

In other words, there is plenty of room for team president Farhan Zaidi and the rest of the front office to make a big move or two this offseason, should the right opportunity present itself.

Let the fun begin.