Reliever Jacob Webb prevailed in his arbitration hearing against the Orioles, as first reported by Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner (X link). He’ll make the $1MM sought by his camp at KHG Sports Management as opposed to the team’s $925K filing figure.
Webb has only spent a couple months in Baltimore. The O’s snagged him off waivers from the Angels in early August. The 30-year-old righty had a strong finish to the season, turning in a 3.27 ERA through 22 innings. He finished the season with a personal-high 53 2/3 frames between the two clubs. Webb struck out nearly a quarter of batters faced and worked to a 3.69 ERA behind an excellent 15.1% swinging strike rate.
Control remained an issue, as Webb walked almost 13% of opposing hitters. He hasn’t had great command at any point in his career, but he’s generally found success regardless. Webb has a sub-3.00 ERA in 130 1/3 big league frames between Atlanta, Los Angeles and Baltimore. That seems likely to earn him a spot in the season-opening relief group for the Orioles. Webb is out of options, so the O’s would need to trade him or put him on waivers if they decide not to carry him on the big league roster.
Teammate Austin Hays also won his hearing against the O’s this afternoon. Tuesday marked a strong day for the players on the arbitration side. In addition to Webb and Hays, Mauricio Dubón, Taylor Ward and Phil Bickford all came out ahead. After teams won the first two arbitration cases last week, the players have won five straight. Baltimore has one unresolved case. First baseman Ryan O’Hearn is seeking a $3.8MM salary, while the team countered at $3.2MM.
Some arbitration cases make sense to me….ones where each side differs by 75k don’t. That’s like pennies in this day with the salaries and payrolls.
I agree 75k seems like a small amount in MLB salary terms but one thing to consider is that a small difference also lowers the downside potential for the player to take a chance in the arb hearing.
If O’s filed 925k and Webb filed 1M…maybe they dangled something like 960k as an offer and Webb figured he would take his chances to get the extra 40k. Worse case, he’s only out the difference between his number and whatever the O’s offered as a settlement figure.
Also, Webb was an 18th round pick so he wasn’t working with any sort of signing bonus. Dude had to earn his bread the hard way grinding it out in the minors. I don’t begrudge him shooting for an extra $75k. That’s a lot of money, even to an MLB player.
It is small now but future salaries and raises will be based off this year’s salary.
So the $75k this year is $100k next year and even more in his final year. For Webb, this could be a half million difference over 3 years.
Much bigger for a player of his stature than the club.
Huh? 75 + 100 + ? = 500
“Even more in his final year”
It’s probably $250k or so that last year.
Sure just probably not $325,000
All depends on next year’s salary. I
Agree. In context to 80M payroll (?) 75K is nothing. But for the player it is significant, like 8%. Certainly any one of us would be following up on an 8% compensation difference.
If Webb earns a raise through superior performance in 2024 and his salary ends up a bit higher than it would have had he lost the case, so be it. I’ll take the production.
Yeah. Drop in the bucket for the O’s either way.
Webb will have to be good to stick on the roster all year without injuries.
Tate, Kimbrel, Cano, Coulombe, Perez, Wells are locks.
Irvin & Baumann are both out of options plus Bryan Baker too. You figure McDermott and maybe Povich will force their way up at some point too.
Is there a reason why every player seems to be winning?
Because these particular players deserved their ask. Webb was great down the stretch for the Orioles.
The last 5-6 were for @500k or so and these last 2 were for under 100k? Derserving aside, which it seems to me these last glut were, maybe there is a message from the hearing guys?
But I do love a conspiracy as well?
No conspiracy there. Bickford and Webb are both in their first year of arbitration and the raises compound.
Also, 75k and 85k represent the difference in what the players and teams submitted, not the full increase in salary. Bickford and Webb received respective bumps of roughly 150k and 250k.
I like how Coach Hyde refers to him “Webbie”.
Think that’s kinda Hyde’s thing. I remember he used to call Jorge Lopez “Lopie”
Looks like Mike Elias found another cheap, shutdown reliever. Jacob Webb was great down the stretch last season. He’ll be a major piece of the Orioles’ pen for years to come.
He’s 30 years old! His expire date is coming up soon.
Ottavino, Robertson and Kimbrel must have all missed that memo. Thanks.
There are a lot of relievers that remain effective into their late 30s. Webb may just be getting started!
He did give up that brutal grand slam in the DS though.
This really isn’t true. He was very good for 3 or 4 weeks until Hyde wore him down and was actually not great the last two or three weeks.
Terrible in the playoffs. I think Webb is a perfectly fine middle reliever who just had a really good start here.
I was buying the hype a little too soon last year.
Exactly
L.A.B.O.R Labor!
Webb is a good story. He was pretty decent for the Braves until he hit Kevin Pillar in the face with a pitch in 2021, and it really took a toll on him mentally (far more than it did Pillar, interestingly), to the point where it looked like his career may come to an end. He felt deeply guilty and was never the same after that incident, until last year when he seemed to finally gain his confidence back. He struggled in AAA to start the year, then seemed to figure things out a bit after getting called up to the majors with the Angels, and then really came into his own after joining the Orioles, to the point where he now looks like a valuable bullpen piece going forward. Definitely rooting for his continued success.
O’Hearn has already spent the extra 600K.
He was really good until he hit Kevin Pillar in the face with a runaway pitch and it messed him up psychologically.