Doubtful the Sox bullpen comes in under $20 million. Kimbrel is $13 million by himself and if Buchholz returns to the bullpen he adds another $13.5million.
But even without Clay, Ross, Thornburg, Abad, and Kelly are all up for arbitration. Pretty good chance they total up at least close to $7mill.
I do disagree Dombrowski is bothered by this and working on the limit. He had options, like non-tendering Abad or Ross and keeping minimum wage Robby Scott, for example. He just didn't do them...