The estimated 2011 Dodger payroll is approaching $110 million.

This includes deferred payments. Why does this include deferred payments (look over here to know what it means from the experts from the Best Toronto accounting) Because if you don’t include deferred payments, then you’re never accounting for those payments being made. The fact that some of those payments are going to players no longer on the team doesn’t mean they’re not part of the player payroll.

The Dodgers are paying Manny Ramirez this year, even though he is no longer part of the team. But it’s not like those payments shouldn’t count. Not only were they an investment in the 2009-10 pennant pursuits, they have an impact on what’s going on today.

We can debate endlessly about the wisdom of all Dodger contracts, but don’t let anyone try to tell you that the Dodger payroll is in the $90 million neighborhood right now. It’s simply not true.

Footnote: The Dodger 40-man roster needs to lose a player, or perhaps more accurately, the Dodgers need to tell us who they’ve dropped. There are currently 41 players listed.

     
* $25,500,000 Starting pitchers (5)
  $8,000,000 Hiroki Kuroda
  $7,500,000 Ted Lilly
* $6,000,000 Chad Billingsley
  $3,500,000 Jon Garland
* $500,000 Clayton Kershaw
     
* $13,780,000 Relief pitchers (7)
  $7,000,000 Jonathan Broxton
* $2,000,000 Hong-Chih Kuo
  $2,000,000 Vicente Padilla
  $1,500,000 Matt Guerrier
* $430,000 Blake Hawksworth
* $430,000 Ronald Belisario
* $420,000 Kenley Jansen
     
    Other pitchers on 40-man roster (9)
    Scott Elbert
    John Ely
    Javy Guerra
    Brent Leach
    Jon Link
    Carlos Monasterios
    Travis Schlichting
    Ramon Troncoso
    Luis Vasquez
     
* $46,620,000 Starting lineup (8)
  $12,000,000 Rafael Furcal
  $9,250,000 Andre Ethier
  $6,950,000 Matt Kemp
  $5,250,000 Casey Blake
  $5,000,000 Juan Uribe
* $4,500,000 James Loney
  $3,250,000 Rod Barajas
* $420,000 Xavier Paul
     
* $5,245,000 Bench (5)
  $2,500,000 Jamey Carroll
  $1,000,000 Dioner Navarro
  $675,000 Tony Gwynn, Jr.
  $650,000 Jay Gibbons
* $420,000 Chin-Lung Hu
     
    Other players on 40-man roster (7)
    Ivan De Jesus
    A.J. Ellis
    Hector Gimenez
    Jamie Hoffmann
    John Lindsey
    Russ Mitchell
    Trayvon Robinson
     
* $17,350,000 Also paying
* $7,700,000 Manny Ramirez
  $3,500,000 Juan Pierre
* $3,375,000 Andruw Jones
  $1,500,000 Jason Schmidt
  $1,000,000 Vicente Padilla
  $150,000 Brad Ausmus
  $125,000 Octavio Dotel
     
*Estimate $108,495,000 GRAND TOTAL

Some of the above figures are estimates. Research for this chart was based in part on Cot’s Baseball Contracts and True Blue L.A.