Detroit Tigers vs. Kansas City Royals - September 9

Will the Detroit Tigers re-sign free agent Max Scherzer this offseason? If they do, they will likely have more than $100 million invested into their starting rotation for the 2015 season.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive Media Group)

About half the teams in Major League Baseball had payrolls of less than $100 million for the 2014 season.

If the Detroit Tigers were to re-sign Max Scherzer and keep the rest of the rotation intact this offseason, they would almost certainly have more than $100 million invested in their starting pitchers alone for 2015.

When Scherzer turned down $144 million for six seasons prior to spring training, it appeared unlikely that the Tigers would be able to re-sign him this offseason. It became even less likely when the Tigers acquired David Price -- who is just one year from free agency -- at the trade deadline.

But once the numbers start being crunched, the price tag to keep the starting rotation intact for the 2015 season becomes staggering.

Here are the salaries for the two Tigers starters who have set salary figures for 2015:

• $28 million: Justin Verlander ($20 million in 2014)

• $16.8 million: Anibal Sanchez ($15.8 million in 2014)

That puts the Tigers' rotation at $44.8 million for 2015 with just two pitchers included.

Both David Price and Rick Porcello are eligible for arbitration this offseason. Both will get raises over what they made in 2014. Here are their salaries for last season:

• $14 million: David Price

• $8.5 million: Rick Porcello

MLB Trade Rumors is much better at estimating how much players will get through arbitration than I am, but I know enough about the process to make educated guesses.

Scherzer earned $6.725 million in 2013, then got a bump all the way to $15.525 million for 2014 after winning the Cy Young Award. That shows just how much a salary can increase in the arbitration process.

Porcello had the best season of his career in 2014 and crossed the 200-inning threshold for the first time in his career. He will get a healthy raise. So will Price, who certainly appears to be the best pitcher in the starting rotation for the Tigers right now.

Let's be conservative and estimate the salary numbers for those two like this:

• $18 million: David Price

• $12 million: Rick Porcello

Those numbers seem to be on the low side, but even if they turn out to be right, they would take the rotation total for 2015 to $74.8 million.

Scherzer already turned down a deal that would have paid him $24 million a season. In this scenario, anything north of $25.2 million for 2015 would push the Tigers past the $100 million mark. Of course, that would not include the other 20 players on the roster. That would simply be the money they would have invested in five starting pitchers.

It seems extremely unlikely that the Tigers would commit this type of money to the rotation. The best bet is that Scherzer will sign elsewhere and the Tigers will fill his spot in the rotation with a less expensive option -- possibly a much less expensive option. It hasn't been that many years since the Tigers held an open competition during spring training to find a fifth starter.

But in the unlikely event the Tigers were to re-sign Scherzer, it might be a signal that one of their other starters could be dealt this offseason.

As fans certainly recall, the Tigers proved a year ago that they weren't afraid to deal a talented starting pitcher in the offseason -- when they dealt Doug Fister to Washington.

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