Baseball Salary Arbitration

Thirty-four players and teams exchanged numbers this year in salary arbitration if you include Santiago Casilla and the San Francisco Giants, who announced a settlement on the day of the exchange of figures. Apparently, Casilla and the Giants had an agreement in place two days earlier, but needed to finalize the deal. They seem to have exchanged numbers just to be sure that they preserved their rights until everything was final.

According to my research to date, 21 of the 34 have reached an agreement leaving 13 cases still active. Of the 21, five are multiyear deals; five settled above the midpoint; three settled at the midpoint; and eight settled below the midpoint. The five multiyear deals are Billy Butler and the Royals, Johnny Cueto and the Reds, R. A. Dickey and the Mets, Jason Hammel and the Rockies, and Wandy Rodriguez and the Astros. Settlements above the midpoint include Craig Breslow and the A’s, Jason Frasor and the Blue Jays, Miguel Montero and the Diamondbacks, Mike Napoli and the Rangers, and Darren O’Day and the Rangers. The three midpoint settlements are Francisco Liriano and Kevin Slowey with the Twins and Andres Torres and the Giants. The settlements that are below the midpoint include Casilla, Frank Francisco and the Rangers, Hong-Chih Kuo and the Dodgers, Kameron Loe and the Brewers, Javier Lopez and the Giants, Angel Pagan and the Mets, Ian Stewart and the Rockies, and Edison Volquez and the Reds.

Napoli's situation is interesting because he was traded twice after exchanging figures with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels traded Napoli to the Blue Jays who packaged him in a deal to the Rangers. That deal is part of what is triggering Michael Young to ask out of Texas.

Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated has tweeted that Ross Ohlendorf and the Pittsburgh Pirates have the first hearing of 2011 today. I will be posting something later about Ohlendorf, who is a Super Two.

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