Arbitration: 2011 Edition

I just wanted to take some time to talk about players offered arbitration in 2011. I’ll just focus on the ones I find interesting, but feel free to ask about other one’s as well, which can easily be looked up online at a site like MLB.com. First case I’d like to bring up as interesting. Francisco Rodriguez of the Milwaukee Brewers. Rodriguez, if he accepts, would be due a one year raise from the 13.5 million dollars he made last season. Certainly the Brewers are hoping he declines in search of a longer deal (arbitration only being for one year) and a chance to be a closer for a team again. (Axford is the Brewers closer and Rodriguez was mainly a setup man). However, if Rodriguez accepts, this will certainly hinder the Brewers in the free agent market if they want to resign Prince Fielder, or sign Jimmy Rollins, whom they have a significant interest in. As a type A free agent (while the term lasts) the Brewers are hoping this lands them compensation picks, which would make this move good, but if Rodriguez likes the money then they are more or less screwed. David Ortiz, who made $12.5 million last year, was offered salary arbitration by the Red Sox. That’s an awful lot of money for a player seemingly without anywhere else to go. There isn’t a huge market of the aging 35 year old DH who is in search of a multi-year deal. The likelihood in my mind that he ends up in a uniform that doesn’t say “Boston” on the front of it are slim to none. That was my view before arbitration as well, but I have to feel like he will accept as this is a lot of money and a guarantee that he gets to play next season. I feel like Boston would have been better to not offer him arbitration and sign him for less. I doubt he declines and signs somewhere else, but in that case the Sox would pick up compensation making this a good move. Maybe these two teams are banking on the fact that only 2 of 27 players offered arbitration last year accepted. I’d like to say that offering Josh Willingham, Michael Cuddyer, Kelly Johnson, Ryan Madson, Mark Buehrle, Edwin Jackson, and obviously Fielder, Pujols, Reyes, Rollins, and Wilson were all good moves. On a final note, interesting to me, Carlos Beltran could not be offered arbitration due to a provision in his contract which leaves the question of where he will land still very much up in the air. Arbitration day is a gamble, we’ll see who appear to be the winners and loser on December 7^th, the deadline to accept, which a bunch of players will probably wait for to make their decision.