In spite of interest from twelve clubs, free agent starter Bronson Arroyo says that he has yet to receive an actual hard offer from a club, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com reports. "I am a guy who's performed for the last 10 years as consistently as anybody in the game," said Arroyo. "And for some reason, nobody's thrown me an offer yet."
Approaching his age-37 season, Arroyo is represented by Terry Bross. He has posted an earned run average of less than four runs per nine innings in four of his last five seasons, and has made at least 32 starts in every season since 2005. Last year, in 202 innings, Arroyo posted a 3.79 ERA and 5.5 K/9 against 1.5 BB/9.
The pitcher's statements are somewhat surprising in light of the widespread interest he has reportedly received. The veteran's name has been amongst the most-mentioned on MLBTR, in large part due to his outstanding record of durability.
Most recently, Arroyo was said to have fielded two-year offers from no fewer than four clubs, with the market slowly coming around to the idea of giving him a third. The widespread perception on Arroyo has been that he was simply waiting to find another guaranteed year.
Indeed, it is not clear whether Arroyo's claim — he said that he does not "even have an offer to turn down" – is impacted by his stance on what kinds of offers he would be open to receiving. Stark reports that Arroyo spent most of the offseason asking for three years with a guarantee exceeding $30MM. Though Stark does not name the current asking price on Arroyo, an executive predicts that he'll get around $10MM per year over a two-year term, with an option year on the end.
Of course, in his profile of Arroyo's free agent case, MLBTR's Tim Dierkes predicted that the veteran would land a two year deal at $12MM per season. As Dierkes argued back in September, a two year deal was likely the most that could be expected, given Arroyo's age.
