We’ve seen a lot of “Team and Player agree to one year deal, avoiding arbitration” stories this week. The reason: today is the deadline for all arbitration-eligible players and their teams to exchange salary figures.
For those who forgot or never knew, the arbitration-eligible players say they’re worth $X. The teams says they’re worth $Y, with $X and $Y being set as of today. If they can’t agree to a deal between now and their arbitration hearing date -- with the hearings taking place between February 4 and February 20 -- the arbitration panel will pick one of the two numbers. There is no in between.
Most players and teams will come to an agreement avoiding an arbitration hearing. There can be an in between for negotiated resolutions. In these cases, the agreements will almost always be around the mid-point between the player’s number and the team’s number.
Some teams, however, are what they call “file and trial” teams, meaning that as a matter of team policy, they will not negotiate after arbitration figures are filed, preferring to let the arbitrators sort it out. For them, today is the drop-dead day. If they don’t hammer out a deal with their players, they are going to arbitration. In the past, file-and-trial teams have included the White Sox, Marlins, Rays and Braves.
Anyway, that’s what’s happening with all of these arbitration-avoiding deals.
