Jacoby Ellsbury will make $9 million in his final season before becoming a free agent, as the center fielder and the Red Sox avoided arbitration with a one-year contract.
Ellsbury was injured for more than half the season and hit just .271 with a .682 OPS when in the lineup, which represented a 250-point drop from his OPS in a breakout 2011 campaign.
However, he was paid $8.05 million last season and arbitration is designed to hand out raises with each added year of service time. With a strong 2013 he could be in line for a huge long-term deal as a 30-year-old free agent, but obviously there are plenty of reasons for the Red Sox to be wary of locking up Ellsbury before then.
