A look at the O's current payroll obligations and a Yoenis Cespedes take

Now that new Oriole Mark Trumbo and reliever Brad Brach avoided arbitration and came to agreements on contracts for 2016, we can take another look at a 2016 Orioles payroll projection as of last night.

These 10 Orioles have salaries set for the 2016 season:

* $16.3 million - Adam Jones
* $15.8 million - Matt Wieters
* $13.0 million - Ubaldo Jimenez
* $12.5 million - J.J. Hardy
* $9.15 million - Trumbo
* $6.0 million - Darren O'Day
* $2.8 million - Hyun Soo Kim
* $2.6 million - Vance Worley
* $1.3 million - Nolan Reimold
* $1.25 million - Brach

The Orioles have these six players that are arbitration-eligible with their projected 2016 salaries from MLBTradeRumors.com:

* $6.9 million - Zach Britton
* $6.2 million - Chris Tillman
* $5.9 million - Manny Machado
* $4.9 million - Miguel Gonzalez
* $3.4 million - Brian Matusz
* $1.5 million - Ryan Flaherty

The teams and the players exchange arbitration figures today. Then, as often happens, they meet somewhere in the middle to settle on a contract for 2016. If they don't settle, arbitration hearings are held beginning in mid-February.

If you add the first list of 10 players, the figure is $80.7 million. The list of six arbitration eligibles projects to $28.8 million. That brings the Orioles to $109.5 million for those 16 players. If you figure this group of four - Kevin Gausman, Caleb Joseph, Jonathan Schoop and Mychal Givens - will make the team, the figure is about $111.5 million for 20 players. Those four are pre-arbitration players.

If the Chris Davis situation gets resolved and he takes the Orioles' $150 million offer, we don't know how they would exactly set the year-by-year salaries. But something in the neighborhood of $21 million for 2016 would bring that to $132.5 million. That would be before any potential starting pitcher signings.

If the Orioles added Davis (or Yoenis Cespedes or Justin Upton) and even one pitcher on a one- or multi-year deal, that could potentially push this payroll beyond the $140 million mark.

According to Cot's Baseball Contracts, the Orioles' opening day payroll over the last few years looked like this:

2012: $84.1 million
2013: $92.2 million
2014: $107.9 million
2015: $118.9 million

For what it is worth, per MLBTradeRumors.com, the Orioles' total possible spending through salary arbitration (counting Trumbo and Brach) was listed at $39 million, which would rank first in the majors. That is due in part to their eight arbitration-eligible players as of Wednesday when 156 major league players filed.

Tampa Bay has 10 arbitration-eligible players (they've settled with a few) to lead the majors, followed by the New York Mets with nine and then the O's, Toronto and Florida with eight.

The Mets were projected second behind the Orioles, with a total obligation through arbitration of $37.7 million, followed by Toronto ($36 million), the New York Yankees ($32.8 million) and the Chicago Cubs ($31.5 million).

More on Cespedes: MASNsports.com's Roch Kubatko reported last night that the Orioles have made a contract offer to Cespedes and that, at this time, they seem to favor pursuing Cespedes over Upton. According to ESPN.com, Baltimore offered Cespedes a five-year deal in the $75 million to $90 million range.

Because he was traded last season, Cespedes could not get a qualifying offer. A team signing him will not lose a draft pick and the Orioles currently hold the 14th overall pick. A team signing Upton would lose a pick.

The 30-year-old Cespedes is coming off a strong 2015 season, one where he hit .291/.328/.542 with 42 doubles, six triples, 35 homers and 105 RBIs. He also has a big arm in left field. The O's have a need in right field, but Cespedes has never played there in the majors.

Cespedes finished 13th in the National League Most Valuable Player vote last year and won a Gold Glove Award for his play with the Tigers in the American League. He finished third in the majors in extra-base hits (83), sixth in doubles, ninth in runs (101), tied for ninth in RBIs and 10th in slugging. From Aug. 1 to the end of the year, his 17 homers tied for sixth in the majors.

Over his career, Cespedes, a right-handed batter, actually hits better against right-handed pitching. There was a big split difference in 2015 when he batted .223/.297/.439 versus lefties and .310/.338/.571 against right-handed pitchers. The splits are more even than that over his career, however, with an OPS of .788 versus lefties and .811 against right-handers.

Is it a red flag that Cespedes has been traded each of the past two seasons at the trade deadline? How about the fact that his 2015 OPS of .870 far exceeded his OPS output from 2014 (.751) and 2013 (.737)?

Coming off his big 2015 season, he would certainly be a nice addition to the middle of the O's order. At this point, if the team moved on from Davis to add Cespedes or Upton, I think that would be received well by fans and good for the team. Then the Orioles could look to add some pitching and make a few final adds or tweaks to complete their roster heading into spring.

By the way, fans who are looking for some great proclamation from the Orioles that they have moved on from Davis may have a long wait. Maybe an O's official will come out and say exactly that. But I think it would be a bad move. Why tell the reps for Cespedes and/or Upton that Davis is out of the picture? Doesn't it provide at least some bargaining leverage for the Orioles for those players to be concerned that Davis could take the O's offer at any minute and eliminate the Orioles as a suitor for them? As I've written before, if the O's want to move on from Davis, just do it. No need to call a press conference about it.