The Nationals and setup ace Tyler Clippard have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal worth $5.875MM, per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (on Twitter).
Clippard, 29 on Friday, exchanged figures with the Nats last month. He and his agents at Excel Sports Management filed for a hefty $6.35MM, while the Nationals countered at $4.45MM. His ultimate salary falls north of the $5.4MM midpoint but comes in south of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz's projected $6.2MM payday.
The Nationals brought in a new closer in the form of Rafael Soriano last offseason, leaving Clippard with little hope of repeating his 32 saves from the 2012 campaign. A shift to the seventh and eighth innings didn't harm his production one bit, however, as he continued his success to the tune of a 2.41 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 73 innings. Over the past five seasons, Clippard has a 2.72 ERA in 383 1/3 innings to go along with averages of 10.3 strikeouts and 3.6 walks per nine innings pitched. He's controllable through the 2015 as a Super Two player, as he currently falls just 24 days shy of five full years of service (4.148).
As MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker shows, the Nationals have now successfully avoided hearings with all 10 of their arbitration eligible players.
