The Diamondbacks’ decision not to offer arbitration to Adam Dunn yesterday was an interesting development. Now, the top home run hitter on the free agent market will not cost a draft pick to sign. Ken Rosenthal says Dunn is sitting pretty, and should find increased interest. He certainly makes more sense for the Nationals now, though they wouldn’t want to go beyond two years.
Rosenthal says the D’Backs made a late run at signing Dunn to a two-year deal shortly before the arbitration deadline. D’Backs GM Josh Byrnes said getting two draft picks for Dunn was a premise of the July trade, but since then "the poor economy has affected some things." The Astros had a similar situation with Randy Wolf. They chose not to offer arbitration to the Type B free agent, who earned $8.5MM this year.
The D’Backs expect the market for Orlando Hudson to be strong, and they were willing to accept the risk of offering arbitration to Brandon Lyon and Juan Cruz as well.
