10 American League teams have free agent arbitration offer decisions to make, and we'll group them in this post. For a fantastic customizable chart with all 65 Type A/B free agents and their decisions in real-time, click here.
- The Blue Jays offered arbitration to Scott Downs (A) Jason Frasor (A) Kevin Gregg (B) Miguel Olivo (B), according to MLB.com's Gregor Chisolm (on Twitter).
- The Twins offered arbitration to Carl Pavano (A), Jesse Crain (B) and Orlando Hudson (B) and declined to offer arbitration to Matt Guerrier (A), Brian Fuentes (B) and Jon Rauch (B), according to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (on Twitter).
- The Rays offered arbitration to Grant Balfour (A), Carl Crawford (A), Rafael Soriano (A), Randy Choate (B), Brad Hawpe (B) and Chad Qualls (B), according to Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times. They did not offer Dan Wheeler (A) or Carlos Pena (B) arbitration. It seems possible that Hawpe has agreed in advance to turn down arbitration.
- The Orioles won't offer arbitration to Koji Uehara (B) or Kevin Millwood (B), according to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter links).
- The Angels declined to offer Hideki Matsui (B) arbitration, the team announced.
- The Rangers offered arbitration to Cliff Lee (A) and Frank Francisco (A), but not to Vladimir Guerrero (A) and Bengie Molina (A), according to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan.
- The Yankees will offer arbitration to Javier Vazquez (B), but not to any of their other free agents, according to Ken Davidoff of Newsday on Twitter. Andy Pettitte (A), Derek Jeter (A), Mariano Rivera (A), Lance Berkman (B) and Kerry Wood (B) were the team's other ranked free agents. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that the Yankees would offer Vazquez arbitration and noted that the right-hander has agreed to reject the offer, a common gentleman's agreement that can take place with Type B free agents. Marc Carig of the Newark Star-Ledger first reported on Twitter that the Yankees would not offer Jeter arbitration.
- The Red Sox offered arbitration to Adrian Beltre (A), Victor Martinez (A) and Felipe Lopez (B), but not to Mike Lowell (B) or Jason Varitek (B), according to the team.
- The White Sox offered arbitration to Paul Konerko (A) and J.J. Putz (B), but not to A.J. Pierzynski (A) or Manny Ramirez (A) according to the team (on Twitter).
- As expected, the Tigers announced that they will not offer arbitration to any of their free agents, including Scott Boras clients Magglio Ordonez (A), Johnny Damon (B), and Gerald Laird (B).
Curious, if you are the Yankees, what’s the downside to offering him Arb? At worst, he gets a 1 year deal and it’s a shade overpriced. But can you really say overpriced and Yankees as if it’s going to hurt them?
The only thing I can think of is maybe this is Cash’s way of sending a message to Jeter that he’s confident they will sign a multiyear deal?
In most situations it would make sense, but my guess is that Jeter would see it as a slap in the face, and a multi-year deal would be out-of-the-question.
They are probably worried that Jeter will take the huge pay day for 1 season and then they have to go through all this drama again next year.
It would probably make sense for Jeter to accept. Barring an injury he is going to get paid no matter what. If he takes the 1 year deal he could have a bounce back season and then force the Yankees to give him an even bigger contract.
1 year deal in Boston. I’d die…..
What if Jeter signed with the Mets?
that’s a pretty big if, man.
Looks like a 12 point font to me.
On a more serious note: It’s an even bigger if, but I’ll say it, What if he signed with Boston?
really you would want jeter on the mets when they have jose? uless jeter moves to second(clearly from this drama his ego is too big for that, heck he would not move to 3rd when arod came to town, arod who at the time was the much much much much better SS)
Aren’t all 3 of the tiger’s arbitration cases Boras clients? I thought he didn’t accept arbitration. Also, I’m surprised they didn’t offer Laird arbitration at least. He’s looking for a full time role and the tigers only have a part time catching role open with their development of Avila.
Never say never. The Rangers declined their half of a $9mm option on Guerrero who is a year younger than Ordonez and played a full season last year. Considering most 35+ year old DH types don’t get more than one year deals possibly with an option year, and Ordonez would force a team to give up a draft pick, it seems amazingly unlikely he could do better than what he could get in arbitration, considering his salary last year was something like 17.5mm. Boras may be cocky, but even he would accept that, and that would leave the Tigers in a bad situation.
Laird will be looking for a very long time finding a full time role in the majors.
But Laird can drink with the best of them. Selig approves.
Should the A’s go for Magglio? Seems it’ll be a good fit, even a better one instead of a ManRam..
No.
The A’s owe Iwakuma $126 MM.
There won’t be enough money for Magglio, unless he wants to sit out for a year.
What? The A’s don’t owe Iwakuma anything.
i think you got your units confused. The A’s might owe Iwakuma 126yen, which is about a $1.50 for the soda Billy Beane bought for Hisashi during negotiations.
i think you got your units confused. The A’s might owe Iwakuma 126yen, which is about a $1.50 for the soda Billy Beane bought for Hisashi during negotiations.
you are assuming last seasons manny was what he really is and not an injury fluke like boras is making it out to be…if so yes he is better but if last season was bad because of all his injuries then no manny is still better
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I think most people will strongly disagree with this sentiment but I’m gonna throw it out there.
The Yankees don’t need to resign Derek Jeter. They have a very capable replacement in Nunez, and wouldn’t be sacrificing much, if any offense at this point. Not to mention that it saves them 15-20 million in 2011.
The Yankees need simply to appear to be interested in Jeter for PR purposes. If they offer him something like 3/45 and he doesn’t accept it, do you think fans will blame ownership or the player? If he decides to be incredibly greedy and doesn’t accept that offer than the Yankees come out on top, as they save all that money and don’t face any backlash.
Ultimately I think Jeter will sign for something like 3/45 as I don’t think he would risk tarnishing his legacy. That and he wouldn’t receive more than 2/15 on the open market.
Unfortunately, I do think there still would be a backlash from fans. There are a worryingly large number of people who think DJ should just get to write his own check (years and dollars).
I don’t think it matters what the Yankees offer, if they don’t resign Jeter they’ll get the blame. Jeter is a demigod in Yankee land, it doesn’t matter what he does, he will always be in the right and management will be in the wrong. I agree that 3/45 is a good and fair offer, I’m also surprised by the negotiating tactics thus far though, Jeter appears to have an ego. I wouldn’t be surprised at this point to see negotiations drag on for awhile. I thought it would end quickly and happily butit doesn’t appear that it will. We’ve never really seen Jeter in negotiations before, maybe we’re learning something new about him.
All of that will be forgotten the first week of April when A-Rod resumes his rightful place as short stop of the Yankees – a position Jeter should have moved off of the moment A-Rod arrived in NY.
In a sensible world, Jeter would have been made into a center fielder back in 2004.
With Arods hip do you honestly still see him playing SS??
I’m sure A-Rod’s hip will be fine. It takes a full year to recover from a lot of surgeries/injuries and we are going into 2011 – Besides, Jeter only ever made plays deep in the hole and never up the middle, which would imply he was playing with one hip too.
Dude he wasnt great a third base last year! He would be terrible at SS. Like TERRIBLE!
The day ARod plays SS again is the day David Ortiz is the Red Sox’s starting 2B
Are you implying that A-Rod is incapable of playing SS? I don’t see the Ortiz comparisons. If there were no DH in the AL, Ortiz would be a career pinch hitter/spot 1B.
A-Rod was a better fielding SS than Jeter ever was. True, he hasn’t played the position in years, but I’m sure he would at least be adequate given his offensive production.
A-Rod was a better fielding SS when he was younger, skinnier, and more athletic then he was now. SS is the hardest position to stick at in the majors because of the athleticism you need for it. Arod is too big and slow for SS right now, I’d be 100% shocked if the Yankees even considered him in a list of the top 5 players in their organization who could play SS in the event of an injury. Arod at SS would be way way way worse then Jeter at SS.
What you say makes absolute sense, except you’re missing the big picture. You are totally correct in that the Yankees will not miss Jeter in the field with Nunez replacing him at short.But this whole issue with Jeter is about the post playing era, The Yankees cannot afford to be made to look cheap, stubborn or unappreaciative with Jeter. He is going to be the Yankees image for the future. The Yankees cannot just appear to look interested for PR purposes nor can they make Jeter look greedy or selfish if he’s going to carry their image into the future. The thought of Cliff Lee getting $25MM to come to the team, having done nothing for the franchise and Jeter not getting that extra year or the extra $5MM in salary won’t come over very well with a huge segment of the fans. The Yankees are a brand not just a baseball team and there is no better image than Jeter to carry that out.
Right now, when you think of the Yankees, Jeter is the first image that comes to mind, especailly with the younger fans who will come of age in the next ten years.Jeter will undoubtably get a contract to represent the Yankees in the future and that will be expensive also. So the Yankees are looking to pay him at a ‘fair’ rate on the field trying to save on what the overall cost of having Jeter on the payroll in the future is going to cost. As Cashman and Steinbrenner have hinted, it’s a business and that’s how this whole Jeter thing is being handled by both sides. The Jeter camp knows this and is using the 4th year and $18MM salary demands as a bargaining ploy. I suspect that you’re right with the final outcome except that a buyout out after three years will be added as a compromise.
so a 4 year deal at 80 to play and a 25 year 3 mil per year deal to be a yankee for life ?
155 mil in total ??
Wonder if the Royals are looking at signing Damon. Would make some sense if the price is right to help bridge the gap to the blossoming farm system.
Not sure about the 4 years @ 80 to play, but some type of lifetime contract is very plausible. I don’t know if you remember Joe Di Maggio aka Mr. Coffee, but he was the Yankees last icon. He was cool, dignified and classy, something the Yankees organization has always tried to portrayed themselves as. Since Di Maggio’s death, there has not been a past icon to carry on that image. Mantle died and with his revelations about his less than All-American life out in the open, there’s been no ‘icon’ to carry out the image. Jeter is the perfect symbol and in this day and age the Yankees are willing to pay for it. In ten years, $3MM won’t seem like a lot
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Haha! See! Vazquez declines arby from the Yanks. I of course said this a couple months ago, but they said I was out of my mind. What now?? Up yours moonraker45! (that last part i was just kidding)
Actually, I think I was more vocal about the unlikelihood of Vasquez declining arb and I’m at a loss as to why he would agree to it.
To be fair, though, I think Vasquez was still a Type A when people were saying you were outright out of your mind and that would be very different. No one would touch Vasquez with a ten foot pole if he was a Type A.
He likely doesn’t want to pitch for the Yankees and get destroyed in that ballpark… again.
lol good memory, but it was a gentlemans agreement, thats like a tie.
If Wood declines arb, I hope he and the Yankees can work something out. Would be great to have him as the setup man in 2011. Injury history on him is worrisome, but he was solid the last half of the season for us and in the post-season.
Jeters arbitration result… 2 years, 10 million per year. hahahhahaha
Somebody doesn’t know how arbitration works.
whats funny is the fact thats you are on a baseball website, a very well known and respected website. That has link after link on how baseball works and more links on how arbitration works and yet you dont know some how still….thats what funny…IF the yankees for some reason in the next hours offer him arb. the least about of money he would get is 80% of last seasons contract which would equate to about 16 mill…maybe just maybe the yankees dont want to pay him that much if they dont have to.
I still think the Yankees are posturing and will ultimatly agree on 3yrs 60 mil. Its embarassing to Jeter and humbling to even suggest he takes himself seriously and attempt and do better then the Yankees offer.
If he doesn’t want to be embarassed then maybe he should accept the 45m offer, which is probably 15m higher than any other team will offer.
What leverage does Jeter have for the Yankees to just add another 15m onto their offer?
The Commish says he is the Captain. DEAL WITH IT. Selig out!
I disagree on the dollars but ultimately the Yankees will cave and sign the guy. I think in the end it will be something like 3/48 or 3/50.
Yea now the jays can get manny without giving up a draft pick !
There was no way the Sox were going to offer arb. Taking the risk of getting saddled with a $15-20m award would crush them.
Beeston was on the Fan today and said the Jays aren’t going to sign players “to 1 or 2 year deals at the end of their careers.” Sounds an awful lot like Manny to me.
damn it he would have been good for there line up
Beeston was on the Fan today and said the Jays aren’t going to sign players “to 1 or 2 year deals at the end of their careers.” Sounds an awful lot like Manny to me.
I don’t understand the Yankees rationale – at all. Why not offer arb to Jeter, Rivera, and Pettitte. There is no downside that I can see at all. If the team eventually does not sign them they will look like idiots for missing out on the picks.
Pettitte has publicly stated that if he comes back, he will only play for NY, so there really isn’t any benefit in offering arb. With Jeter I think that the Yankees want to lock him up for more years so that he definitely retires as a Yankee, and so that they don’t have to go through these negotiations again next season if Jeter were to accept. Offering Mo arb might have been the right move, there have been reports that the Yankees only want to offer him 1 year, while Rivera wants 2, the only concern I could see would be the inevitable raise Rivera would receive through arbitration.
I don’t believe that it’s money with Jeter. It’s the years. The Yankees don’t think he can play decently at SS for three years, let alone 4 years as the Jeter camp has counter- proposed and are not going to get tied downed to that time frame.The arbitration would most likely go against Jeter and they would prefer not to publicly insult him in the manner, especailly since they believe their going to sign him when all is said and done.
All this furor with Jeter is really being overplayed by Jeter, the Yankees and the media.
The Lee signing is more of a newsworthy story and the Rivera signing is a more important story than Jeter’s, meanwhile, it gets all the press. Yankees are not going to lose out on Jeter, all this stuff is just negoiations.
@ bjsguess- my reply button’s stuck
With the Rangers declining to offer Guerrero arbitration (but still negotiating with him), they must feel like they still have a chance to reach a deal with him but at a reduced price. Am I understanding this right?
Tim told you the Rangers would offer Francisco arbitration and I predict he accepts and stays
Looks like the Rays could be stacked up in the draft.
Considering it seems they are letting a few key guys go, they might need to be.
Considering it seems they are letting a few key guys go, they might need to be.
Why does Qualls get offered arb? He was horrendous last year
Not exactly. Some elements of his stats were very bad, but others, such as BB and K rates were pretty good. And once in TB, he performed somewhat better than he had in Arizona, although certainly not as well as the Rays had hoped. There was also an injury earlier that may have contributed to his falloff.
Finally, it is possible that he had a deal with the Rays to turn down arbitration. As he was Type B another team would not sacrifice a draft pick while the Rays would get a supplementary pick so Qualls would not be hurt while the Rays would gain something. The same applies to Hawpe by the way.
Ok. Thanks. The article does say that Hawpe probably agreed to turn it down.
This is why the Yankees farm system is bone dry . They never offer arbitration to any of their players who would be a guarantee to reject .. Instead they lose draft picks to other teams when they sign their A type free agents
Uh, the Yankees have a good farm system. Montero, Romine, Murphy, Sanchez Betances, Banuelos, Brackman, etc.
i was not aware that 6 or so prospects made up a good farm system
well believe it, because Yankees prospects are treated differently than other prospects because their Yankees prospects. duh
This is why the Yankees farm system is bone dry . They never offer arbitration to any of their players who would be a guarantee to reject .. Instead they lose draft picks to other teams when they sign their A type free agents
Mistake to not offer Rauch arbitration. He only made $2.9M last season and as a Type B, would probably test the market and beat his potential arb salary. He’s a solid reliever who can point to the old cliche “closing experience.”
Even if he accepts, it’s not a crippling deal. Twins have made some bad decisions regarding their bullpen management already this offseason, between this and leaving Kyle Waldrop off the 40-man roster.
I was on the fence with Rauch and Guerrier, about what would happen at least.
Rauch-I saw him declining it if offered and getting some picks out of it. I’m really surprised they didn’t offer. Like you said, even if he accepted it wouldn’t have been a “oh crap!”
Guerrier-I’m a little surprised at this. I didn’t care either way, but I figured with his mostly good history with the Twins they’d offer. I can see why they didn’t with the Type A status, but I still could have seen them offering and risking paying him a few million more. I thought that’s what they’d do, but I think he was the second biggest risk for an arbitration offer right behind Fuentes.
I wish we could get Fuentes back, but there’s no way the Twins can afford Capps, Nathan and Fuentes. It’s too bad too, I like Fuentes way more than Capps.
And I do agree about Waldrop. Hopefully he is not lost. He’s one of the very few BP arms that are ready. I’d like to see if he can hack it in the majors for the Twins.
I was on the fence with Rauch and Guerrier, about what would happen at least.
Rauch-I saw him declining it if offered and getting some picks out of it. I’m really surprised they didn’t offer. Like you said, even if he accepted it wouldn’t have been a “oh crap!”
Guerrier-I’m a little surprised at this. I didn’t care either way, but I figured with his mostly good history with the Twins they’d offer. I can see why they didn’t with the Type A status, but I still could have seen them offering and risking paying him a few million more. I thought that’s what they’d do, but I think he was the second biggest risk for an arbitration offer right behind Fuentes.
I wish we could get Fuentes back, but there’s no way the Twins can afford Capps, Nathan and Fuentes. It’s too bad too, I like Fuentes way more than Capps.
And I do agree about Waldrop. Hopefully he is not lost. He’s one of the very few BP arms that are ready. I’d like to see if he can hack it in the majors for the Twins.
Mistake to not offer Rauch arbitration. He only made $2.9M last season and as a Type B, would probably test the market and beat his potential arb salary. He’s a solid reliever who can point to the old cliche “closing experience.”
Even if he accepts, it’s not a crippling deal. Twins have made some bad decisions regarding their bullpen management already this offseason, between this and leaving Kyle Waldrop off the 40-man roster.
Blue Jays?
I guess they’re really leaving it to the last minute.
worst case scenario: they accept, jays sign them to market price 1-year deals.
no biggie if that happens, anyway; don’t know why there was speculation they wouldn’t offer to Frasor.
I guess they’re really leaving it to the last minute.
Blue Jays?