Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cade Horton, Michael Busch get awards from the pre-arb bonus pool

In the last collective-bargaining agreement, MLB owners agreed to create a bonus pool of money to be paid to certain players not eligible for arbitration. Each team contributes $1,666,667 to the pool, making a total of $50 million to be distributed among eligible pre-arb players.

Pre-arb players eligible for this pool receive $2.5 million for the MVP or Cy Young Award and $1.75 million for second in the voting, $1.5 million for third, $1 million for fourth, fifth or making the all-MLB first team. Other awards include $750,000 for Rookie of the Year, $500,000 for second in Rookie of the Year voting or the all-MLB second team. Players receive money from this pool for only one award per year, for the highest amount eligible, and the remaining money is allocated by a WAR formula.

Three Cubs players received cash awards from this pool for 2025: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cade Horton and Michael Busch. PCA received $1,206,207 (which included the $500,000 for making the all-MLB second team), Horton $858,806 (which included the $500,000 for finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting) and Busch got $483,708.

Paul Skenes topped the list with a record for this award at $3,436,343, for his 7.7 bWAR season and winning the NL Cy Young Award.

In all, 102 players received awards from the 2025 pre-arb bonus pool, including 10 members of the Brewers, which is a record for one team.

Congratulations to PCA, Horton, Busch and all the pre-arb award players. Here’s a full list of all players receiving awards this year.