Cody Ross won his arbitration hearing with the Marlins, tweets Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post. The outfielder will earn $4.45MM this year instead of the $4.2MM salary the Marlins offered.
Ross, 29, hit .270/.321/.469 in 604 plate appearances for the Marlins last year. He logged over 1300 innings in center and right, posting a UZR/150 of -7.8. That stat wouldn't have figured into the arbitration hearing, but his 24 homers and 90 RBI might have.
Ross, who won't be eligible for free agency until after the 2011 season, earned $2.25MM for the Marlins last year. Corey Hart, a comparable outfielder who figures to hit free agency when Ross does, won his hearing with the Brewers last week.
Heh, I hadn’t heard about this. They want to arbitration over a quarter of a million bucks? Really? It was that important to them? Of course, this is the Marlins we’re talking about.
“Of course, this is the Marlins we’re talking about.”
Exactly!
That extra couple hundred thousand dollars could have been used a long way.
I think I remember reading that the Marlins are a club that simply doesn’t negotiate past the exchanging of salary figures as a matter of club policy.
At 1.8 WAR, $4.45 million per year is a bargain.
Not really. A win has been going for as low as like 3-3.5 MM this offseason. Plus, Ross is only in his second year of arbitration – he should be cost controlled at a much lower then market value salary.
4.45 MM in the second year of Arbitration is a pretty big price for a player hovering around average production. In fact, a salary that high got many similar average players non-tendered this offseason, only to see them sign 1-3 MM contracts in the end.
Your point is well taken about Ross’s service time, but even at $3 million/WAR, they still come out ahead on the deal. My point is simply that advanced metrics don’t disfavor this contract, contrary to what the article’s reference to Ross’s negative UZR seemed to imply.