Email a copy of 'How Clubs Determine Pre-Arbitration Salaries' to a friend
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By Zachary Links | at
Email a copy of 'How Clubs Determine Pre-Arbitration Salaries' to a friend
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GreenMonsta
Reread the post and it regards strictly to pre-arbitration. Nevermind my earlier thought.
iLIKEtheGIANTSmucho
In arbitration, yes. Low balling too much sets up the player to place a reasonable bid that becomes a near-lock. I assume both sides look at comparable players and assume a price they believe they could win a case for, then choose a bid that’s not too far beyond or too close to that assumed value.
But at least for the pre-arbitration years, low balling should have absolutely no effect on arbitration salaries.
GreenMonsta
Yeah, I reread article, and found my point was off base. thx
aaronasbury
Great article, really enjoyed this read!
daysauce
I love how right after you post it, Trout signs a contract.
tune-in for baseball
Zach this is a very interesting article to give us readers some background info on how teams and agents do their dance in the pre-arb years of a contract. I would be interested,(and assume many others readers would be also) in an article that breaks down how an average contract is paid out to a player.Using a round figure,(say $10 mill) the things that would be interesting to know would be: How much does the agent get and is it all up front; is the agents’ fee a flat %; are players paid weekly, monthly, etc.;do they get a W2 or 1099 form; how do city,state,taxes get paid to all the different areas a player performs his craft during the season. Is it the players responsibility to do all of this or is some of it done by the team,agent,or lawyer. These questions,and many others I am sure you have heard or thought about would be a very interesting read.
Jason G
The system makes sense regardless of what the teams do. Players in their pre-arb years may or may not pan out. Giving them a little extra money as performance/conditioning incentives and/or modest gestures of goodwill, but otherwise keeping the salaries relatively flat (with a few exceptions) seems to be fair. $500,000 is a lot for a non-prospect/replacement-level guy (it’s ~15 times more than what the average American makes), and it will lead to much more for guys who do perform well.
jb226 2
There’s nothing at all wrong with a pay scale for pre-arbitration players. As always the devil is in the details and the real question is whether or not the scale itself is appropriate.
Clearly I am not a major league general manager, but I would definitely come up with a scale that awards performance and is comparatively generous. I wouldn’t throw millions (or even a million–Mr. Trout!) bucks at a pre-arb player, but I would want my players to feel not only a general goodwill but an appreciation for their actual contributions — not just how long they’ve been there.
Would that buy me a break in arbitration or free agency? Probably not. But the flip side of offending a player might well mean I never get a chance in free agency. For a few thousand or a few tens of thousands of dollars per pre-arbitration player I’ll take the goodwill.