A look at the Royals players who will be eligible for arbitration after the season…
- First time: Luke Hochevar, Billy Butler, Brayan Pena, Josh Fields, Brian Anderson
- Second time: Alex Gordon, Robinson Tejeda
- Third time: Brian Bannister, Kyle Davies
- Fourth time: Wilson Betemit
Pena, Fields, Bannister, and Davies are non-tender candidates by virtue of poor performance, injury, or both. Before the non-tender deadline in December, the Royals could shop them around. Still, the Royals could just retain any or all of them at fairly reasonable prices if they think 2011 will bring improvement.
Hochevar and Gordon have yet to live up to their draft pedigrees, but neither is worth cutting loose. Butler, Tejeda, and Betemit will also be tendered contracts. Butler hasn't racked up counting stats in his career, but he's still done enough to earn the $3.1MM James Loney did. Betemit's huge half-year presents something of a conundrum in the opinon of FanGraphs' Dave Cameron, but I think he'll be retained. Anderson signed a $700K minor league deal as an outfielder in December but later converted to pitching. He may have impressed enough in 17.3 innings to be tendered a contract.
