The Royals have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with Felipe Paulino for 2013, according to a team press release. The deal allows the club to avoid arbitration with the right-hander, who was arb-eligible for the third time.
Paulino will earn $1.75MM in guaranteed money with another $250K in incentives, reports Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star (Twitter link). That's a significant drop from the $2.7MM that MLBTR's Matt Swartz projected that Paulino would earn through arbitration and actually less than the $1.9MM salary Paulino earned in 2012. The pay cut is no doubt due to Paulino's Tommy John surgery last July, and he isn't expected to pitch for the Royals until at least midseason.
Since being acquired from the Rockies in July 2011, Paulino has a 3.55 ERA and 8.8 K/9 rate in 28 games (27 of them starts) for Kansas City, including a 1.67 ERA over his seven starts in 2012 before his injury.
Luke Hochevar and Chris Getz are the Royals' two remaining arb-eligible players. You can follow the status of every arbitration-eligible player on MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker.
