The pre-arbitration bonus pool turned Paul Skenes’ unanimous Cy Young Award into more than another trophy on the shelf. After carving through National League lineups with a 1.97 ERA, 216 strikeouts and a 0.95 WHIP, the Pirates ace collected a record $3,436,343 from MLB’s performance pool for 2025. His regular major-league salary was $875,000.
That contrast captured the strange economics surrounding one of baseball’s most overpowering young pitchers. Every time Skenes drove a high-velocity fastball past a late swing or buried his splinker beneath a bat, he added value that his salary alone could not reflect. Jackson Merrill experienced the same system from a different financial altitude. The Padres center fielder received $391,918, a substantial payment but barely one-ninth of Skenes’ total. Awards and performance dictated the difference.
Together, their seasons reveal what the pre-arbitration bonus pool was built to do. MLB created a $50 million reserve for players producing star-level value before arbitration normally delivers star-level money. Skenes reached its upper limits. Merrill showed what the system looks like without a major award turbocharging the check.
The $50 Million Pie
Think of MLB’s pre-arbitration bonus pool as a $50 million pie. The biggest award winners take their guaranteed slices first. An eligible MVP or Cy Young winner receives $2.5 million, with smaller predetermined shares going to other top award finishers and All-MLB selections.
Whatever remains gets carved up according to Joint WAR, the performance formula created by MLB and the MLB Players Association. One award payment can dramatically change a player’s final total, while WAR spreads the remaining money among dozens of productive young players. Nobody gets to stack several awards payments, but a player can pair his largest award bonus with a WAR-based share. For Skenes, that combination became historic.
Skenes Turned a Cy Young Season Into a Record Payday
Skenes entered 2025 carrying expectations normally reserved for pitchers several years older. Rather than regress after his spectacular rookie season, he squeezed the strike zone even tighter. His fastball still arrived with triple-digit menace, while the splinker gave hitters another pitch that disappeared under barrels.
The final line looked absurd: 1.97 ERA over 187⅔ innings, 216 strikeouts, a 2.36 FIP and a 217 ERA+. His ERA led the majors, while his WHIP and FIP also ranked among the National League’s best. The numbers only tell part of the experience.
A Skenes at-bat could shrink quickly. One fastball crowded the top of the zone, another pitch vanished below it, and suddenly a hitter stood two strikes deep with almost no comfortable answer. That constant pressure turned 32 starts into one of the defining pitching seasons in baseball.
Skenes won the National League Cy Young Award unanimously, unlocking the system’s $2.5 million award payment. His WAR share added another $936,343, pushing the final total to $3,436,343 and breaking Bobby Witt Jr.’s previous single-season bonus-pool record. Combined with the $2,152,057 Skenes earned after his rookie year, his two-season take from the pre-arbitration bonus pool reached $5,588,400.
The beauty of the system, at least in a season like this, becomes easy to see. Strikeouts on a summer night in Pittsburgh eventually traveled all the way to the ledger.
Jackson Merrill and the Limits of WAR
Merrill’s path looked nothing like Skenes’ route. A year earlier, he had exploded as a 21-year-old rookie after moving from shortstop to center field. Merrill hit .292 with 24 home runs, 90 RBIs, 16 stolen bases and an .826 OPS, earned an All-Star selection and finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting.
San Diego had asked an inexperienced infielder to learn center field in the majors. Merrill responded by covering the wide Petco Park outfield, chasing balls toward the warning track and supplying middle-of-the-order power at the plate. His 2024 performance produced a $1,191,534 bonus. The Rookie of the Year finish supplied a $500,000 award payment, while WAR added the rest.
The following season brought a different financial result. Merrill’s finalized 2025 pre-arbitration bonus pool payment fell to $391,918 because he no longer had the same awards boost. That swing illustrates the system better than another paragraph of CBA language could. A player can remain highly productive and still watch his bonus tumble when another season produces less awards hardware.
Around him, the 2025 distribution showed how broad the range could become. Philadelphia left-hander Cristopher Sánchez received $2,678,437, Houston’s Hunter Brown earned $2,206,538, Seattle’s Bryan Woo collected $1,540,676, and Arizona’s Corbin Carroll received $1,341,674. Ten players cleared $1 million. In all, 101 received payments.
Merrill’s $135 Million Deal Changes the Picture
Merrill also complicates the original logic behind the program because he no longer resembles a young player waiting for his first major payday. On April 2, 2025, San Diego announced a nine-year extension keeping him under contract through 2034 with a club option for 2035. The guarantee totaled $135 million.
One season had convinced the Padres. Rather than let Merrill move year by year through baseball’s salary system, San Diego locked its young center fielder into the heart of the franchise for virtually his entire 20s. However, that extension did not remove him from the pre-arbitration bonus pool. Players with multiyear contracts can remain eligible under the current rules if they still satisfy the service-time requirements.
That wrinkle has entered negotiations over baseball’s next collective bargaining agreement. The MLB Players Association has proposed excluding players on multiyear contracts from future versions of the program. MLB has proposed increasing the pool from $50 million to $65 million in 2027, with additional growth later.
The debate becomes more complicated when Merrill enters the frame. He represents exactly the sort of young star the pool was designed to reward, yet his club has already guaranteed him nine figures. Baseball now has to decide whether future versions of the program should treat those two kinds of security differently.
Keep 2025 and 2026 Separate
The timeline matters here. The 2025 bonus-pool figures are complete. Award voting ended, performance calculations settled, and the checks followed. The 2026 numbers have served only as snapshots during the season.
An Associated Press report on a July 2026 MLB memo projected Skenes for $402,921 from the performance portion at that stage. The same memo projected Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong at a pool-leading $1,179,587 based on WAR calculations through July 6.
Those projections can move fast. A scorching August can reorder the performance standings. A September slump can cost a player ground. Then awards voting can dramatically reshape the final distribution after the regular season ends. Skenes offered the perfect example one year earlier. His performance already positioned him for a significant WAR payment. The Cy Young turned significant into record-setting.
What Comes Next for Baseball’s Young Stars
The pre-arbitration bonus pool now sits inside a larger argument about when baseball should start paying young stars like stars. For generations, the sport’s salary ladder worked slowly. A player could arrive in the majors, become an All-Star almost immediately and still wait years before arbitration began reflecting that production in his paycheck.
The bonus pool moved part of that reward forward. More importantly, it tied the money back to what happens between the foul lines. A strikeout with runners aboard, a gap closed in center field or a month of relentless production can now carry financial value before arbitration ever begins. That connection matters more than the accounting language.
Skenes represents the spectacular version: dominance, hardware and a record payment. Merrill represents the more complicated future, where a young player can already possess long-term security while still qualifying for money designed to reward early-career value. Before long, the next collective bargaining agreement could reshape both the size of the pre-arbitration bonus pool and the players eligible to share it.
For now, the central idea remains simple. Baseball finally created a way for elite young performance to produce more immediate financial consequences. Every swing and every pitch still starts on the grass and dirt. Only now, some of them end on the ledger too.
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FAQ’s
What is MLB’s pre-arbitration bonus pool?
It is a $50 million annual pool that rewards top young players who have not yet reached salary arbitration.
How much did Paul Skenes earn from the 2025 bonus pool?
Skenes earned a record $3,436,343 after winning the 2025 NL Cy Young Award unanimously.
How much did Jackson Merrill receive from the 2025 bonus pool?
Merrill received $391,918 for 2025 after earning more than $1.19 million from the program following his rookie season.
How does MLB divide the pre-arbitration bonus pool?
Award winners receive predetermined bonuses first. MLB then distributes the remaining money according to its jointly developed WAR formula.
Can players with long-term contracts still receive pre-arbitration bonuses?
Yes. Under the current rules, an eligible player can qualify even after signing a multiyear contract, as Jackson Merrill did
