The Orioles avoided arbitration with Jeremy Guthrie, agreeing to a one-year deal, according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun (on Twitter). The deal is worth $5.75MM plus award bonuses, according to CAA, Guthrie's agency, on Twitter. The Orioles offered $5MM and Guthrie countered with a $6.5MM submission before the sides agreed to a deal at the midpoint.
The former first rounder reached the 200-inning plateau for the second consecutive season last year, posting a 3.83 ERA with 5.1 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9. Guthrie, who will likely be Baltimore's Opening Day starter, has started at least 30 games for three consecutive seasons.
As I explained last month, Guthrie's case would likely have involved a discussion of durability vs. dominance. However, the sides avoided Wednesday's scheduled hearing, so the point is moot for another year.
As our Arb Tracker shows, only seven arbitration eligible players remain unsigned for 2011. All of the Orioles' arbitration eligible players are under contract for 2011, now that Guthrie and Luke Scott agreed to one-year deals. Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun points out that the Orioles haven't gone to an arbitration hearing since 2006.
Good. Let’s get to Satasota now
*Sarasota
Seems pretty fair. I personally think Guthrie is one of the more underrated pitchers in baseball… kinda lost on a bad team. For the past 3 years he has pitched well enough to win a lot of games.
Edit: 4 years, really, now that I go back and look at his numbers.
His 2009 season was lousy for any pitcher.
I’d say he’s an above average pitcher who simply has been on a bad team.
Orioles off-season officially done. Best team-building winter in many years. Bring on Opening Day.
hurray for mediocrity!
next lets all stand around a Ford Focus and give it a standing ovation
Says a Jays fan.
They rid themselves of Wells. I’d say that already beats standing around a Focus w/ a standing ovation.
You act like I’m happy about my teams mediocrity but unfairly criticize the Orioles?
Some people are able to put their biases away and just discuss baseball.
If a Ford Focus was the best car you could afford, you’d be proud even if your neighbors were all buying the newest Mercedes every year. The O’s and your Jays had 1/3 less to spend than the Yankees last year, so they should be prouder of their Ford Focus.
there’s no money in this equation…
Tampa Bay is poorer then both Jays/O’s .. they didn’t waste money on spoilers, blue lights underneath and a kicking stereo system for their focus, instead they saved up, and bought themselves a pretty nice car..
I criticize the O’s decisions ONLY because as a Jay fan I’ve been through it during the ricciardi years, getting frank thomas, Bj ryan, overbay etc, pieces that made us better but never good enough. I’m not an O hater, I pray for the day the Jays and O’s are leading the division, nothing would make me happier.
“Some people are able to put their biases away and just discuss baseball.”
“hurray for mediocrity!
next lets all stand around a Ford Focus and give it a standing ovation”
– You certainly proved your point.
“I criticize the O’s decisions ONLY because as a Jay fan I’ve been through it during the ricciardi years, getting frank thomas, Bj ryan, overbay etc, pieces that made us better but never good enough. I’m not an O hater, I pray for the day the Jays and O’s are leading the division, nothing would make me happier.”
You criticize the Os decisions on just about every board I’ve seen. BJ Ryan was an overloaded overblown contract, Vlad and Lee are one year, low risk signings to put some life into the offense. Frank Thomas, by all indications, was great for you in 2007. Overbay has been an average player his whole career.
I mean at some level I see the point you are trying to make, but you are not expressing yourself well, you are pretty much just bashing every move the Os make without any real idea how these players are going to perform in the Al East. Wait and see, if they actually do bad, then we can have a real debate where we don’t try to make unfunny jokes about Ford Focuses.
EDIT: I also want to note that when you signed Overbay / Thomas etc that reminded me a lot more of when we signed Tejada (the first time) and traded for Sammy Sosa. We were signing players without any sort of a young around them. The Os actually have a solid youth core.
Oh and the Jays didn’t have a young core at the time of the Thomas, Ryan, Overbay signings… Halladay, Mcgowan, Wells, Rios, Hill, .. yup no young core at all..
O’s do have a very nice crop of young players, and they should let them develop and get playing time rather than bring in veterans who will not be here when things turn around..
Vlad Guerrero will not be on an Orioles play off team, he prob wont even play 2012 for them. So why not save the 8 million, invest it in an international FA or on the draft and continue to stay the course..
Your preaching to the choir on the international stuff. A lot of fans are very mad about our lack of investment there. McPhail recently spoke at my school (university of baltimore law) and stated that he intends to spend in the free agent market. He actually does what he says, he just takes an uncannily long amount of time to do it.
Also I think you know what I meant about the young core. We have a core of players who all seem to be developing together, Rios, Hill, Wells, Halladay, McGowan were all over the board in their development and there were a lot of holes across the Jays roster at that time. The Os for the first time since the 90s finally have a team where there is at least some level of potential at every position.
Btw I really like that this conversation got civil. I am with you on a lot of things you say, but I think the Vlad signing is great. First of all there’s the offensive potential but second of all when you have some core players under the age of 27, you really need veteran players who have something to offer around them. I think that fact is often overlooked. If he fizzles out, he fizzles out, but, at least for me, its hard to bash a 1 year contract, especially when we have a contingency plan.
Dude it’s one year deals. Nothing like the contracts Thomas and BJ got. Look at that first…
I understand the sentiment of your thoughts, Ben, but I don’t agree that it’s strictly dominance vs. endurance. Sure, with Guthrie it basically somes down to that, but on balance, a 5-6M figure for a MLB starter is pretty cheap if you consider that most guys who pitch as many innings as he has typically gets in and around 10M/YR.
But that’s what Guthrie is worth on the free agent market(and maybe more). Arbitration years are about 40,60, and 80 percent of market value. Guthrie is in the 60% year so a $5.75MM deal is pretty reasonable for both sides
I don’t disagree with what you are saying, but I am arguing from an arbitration legal perspective.
Ben used the service-time class as a basis, which sounds logical, but in such arbitration cases, the player’s side typically brings in aggregate and overall value comparisons. That is, they raise what the player’s production would be worth in the open market. That’s not to say that they argue for that top “open market” dollar figure. They raise it to be used as a base reference point for the arbiter to use, and adjust downwards from.
Yeah I agree with what you’re saying. Just giving my opinion from a sabermetric point of view