MLB · P · Kansas City Royals
Seth Lugo
B/T R/R · 6' 4" · 225 lb · born Shreveport, LA, USA · age 36 · draft 2011 rd 34 · played P 32 · MLB debut 2016-07-01
751 batters faced scored this season His season card →
On the record · career milestone this season
1,000 career strikeouts — Wed, May 13 · night game vs. Chicago White Sox The scorecard →
Scout’s note
Seth Lugo, 36, from Shreveport, was a 34th-round pick in 2011 who now has 1,088 strikeouts across 392 big-league games — a late selection who built a long career.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
What he’s paid
Under contractA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s.
- 2026 salary
- $21.50M
- Tax hit
- $23.00M
- Service time
- 10 yr 82 d
- Guaranteed
- $46M
The deal 2 years $46M (2026–2027), unspecified option for 2028 — $23.0M a year on average, worked out by us rather than stated on the sheet, and not the same thing as the tax hit above
On the sheet: 2 y/$46 (26-27)+28 opt · agent Ballengee · 2 / 3 options left
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2028 |
|---|---|
| Cash | $3.0M |
| Tax hit | Option |
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Kansas City Royals.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $23.0M
- Guaranteed
- $46.0M
- Term
- 2 yrs
- His class
- Extension
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary | $20.0M | $20.0M | $17.0M |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect Seth Lugo
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Seth Lugo cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Umpire favor
-5.8 net runs over 30 graded games — the zone cost the umpire more than it gave, on balance.
The line
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →