Baseball Arbitration For Free Agents

There is not a great source on the Internet for info about tonight's arbitration deadline.  I've found a lot of outdated links so far.  Maybe collaboratively we can create a guide to it in layman's terms here.  Below is my understanding of the rules and tonight's deadline.

Tonight at midnight EST is the deadline for teams to offer arbitration to their former players who have filed for free agency.  If arbitration is not offered, the team can still negotiate with the player but cannot receive draft pick compensation if he signs elsewhere.  Only Type A and B free agents result in compensation, anyway.

If his old team does not offer arbitration, the player can still sign with that team and be eligible to play on Opening Day.

This is all separate from the non-tender deadline, which is December 12th.  That is for players under team control (less than six years of service time) who do not have contracts for the 2008 season.

Comments

[zubes007]

"I have to figure this part out: if his old team does not offer arbitration but he still signs with them, is he ineligible to play until May 1st?"

Yes.

[mattk]

actually, the new CBA eliminated that, and now even if a player is not offered arbitration he is still free to sign with his old team, and can play at the beginning of the year, unlike the old CBA requirment. Ass. GM Dean Taylor explained that about David Riske, although the Royals are offering him arbitration.

[cianfroccofan]

the may 1st date comes in to play in two cases. if a player is not offered arbitration then his old team cannot sign him again until may 1st. also if a player is offered arbitration and rejects it in the given window, then he cannot sign with his old team until may 1st.

the December 12th date is for players with less than 6 years of service time, but only in years 4-6 is a player arbitration eligible, in the first three years the team sets the salary.

arbitration for those who dont know is a process where the two sides each enter a figure to a judge who will decide after hearing arguments from both sides which salary the player will get. this process is one of the other, so if mike cameron wants 20 mil for one year, the judge would most likely side with the padres, so the offers should be reasonable.

after arbitration is offered, a player can still agree to some other contract with that team to avoid arbitration all together.

hope that helps

[mattk]

here is the article that explains that May 1 date is eliminated. http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071130&content_id=2314162&vkey=news_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc

[GusGloom]

Mattk is right, the CBA changed all that. I'm fairly sure players can still sign with their old team without abitration being offered.

[ASeiler]

Here's MLB's official press release about the new CBA. Note the FREE AGENCY part at the bottom. It says eliminate all the signing dates, meaning no May 1 deal anymore. Players can re-sign at any time, regardless of arbitration.

[ASeiler]

http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2006/m10/d24/c1722380.jsp

[hemingways]

Matt K. is right, the last CBA wiped out the May 1st clause. Players who do not accept arbitration can still resign with their old teams and play on opening day, which makes the whole deadline kind of useless.

One of the only players I can remember that was actually affected by the May 1 deadline was Tim Raines when he was with the Expos. Baseball colluded and nobody offered Raines a contract when he was a free agent in his prime (think of how crazy that is). Raines was forced to go back to the Expos, and May 1st was on a Saturday NBC game of the week at Shea. I remember Raines had an awesome day, I'd love to go find the box score.

[mind_vs_body]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198705020.shtml

It was actually May 2, 1987. 4 for 5 with a 3B, SB, and GS to win in the 10th.
Coincidentally SI has an article up about Raines for the HOF today.

[hemingways]

I found the box score I was talking about above. Raines' first game of the year was actually on Saturday, May 2nd, 1987 vs the Mets...
http://baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=198705020NYN

Raines went 4-5 with 3 runs, 4 rbi's, a triple, a homer, and a stolen base in his first game back after a forced month off.

Raines was a free agent after the 1986 season, a year he hit .334/.413/.476 with 184 hits and 70 stolen bases, and not one team made him a contract offer. He resigned with the Expos on May 1st and played his first game on May 2nd.

[hemingways]

Thanks mind!

[bjsguess]

Agree with others, the CBA changed some of these rules around the dates.

One question I don't know the answer to - what happens to those players that signed at the beginning of the FA process. For example, if Lowell would have signed on the same day he did but with the Yanks what would have happened for compensation? Is it presumed that he would have been offered arbitration? Would the Red Sox have had an opportunity to get an arbitration offer in front of Lowell immediately before he signed?

[cianfroccofan]

i was forgetting about the new cba.

[hemingways]

Bjsguess, from what I understand if your free agent signs with another team before you offer him arbitration doesn't matter. You can still offer arbitration after they have signed and get a compensation pick. The Padres and Doug Brocail are one example this year. I believe he was a type B free agent, and he signed with Houston, so the Pads get a sandwich pick for offering arbitration after he signed, which is goofy. If he was a type A then SD would get Houston's first round pick. The Cubs should be offering Jason Kendall arbitration before the deadline to get a pick for his signing with the Brewers.

I think the whole process is a little goofy. Teams should be forced to offer arbitration before free agency begins, not a month into it.