Milwaukee beat Jose Veras in an arbitration hearing held yesterday, meaning the reliever will earn $2 million this season rather than the $2.375 million he requested.
Considering the small gap in submissions it’s odd that the two sides couldn’t come to a pre-hearing compromise, but instead the Brewers made their case to a three-person panel for why he wasn’t worth the money before Veras has even thrown a pitch for them.
Acquired from the Pirates for Casey McGehee in mid-December, the 31-year-old right-hander logged a career-high 71 innings with a 3.80 ERA and 79/34 K/BB ratio last season. He’ll fill a setup role for the Brewers and Veras will be under team control again in 2013 via arbitration.
