Players with two years and 146 days of Major League service time will qualify for Super Two status, MLBTR's Tim Dierkes has learned. This was the same cutoff point that was predicted by CAA in April, and as MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith wrote six months ago, it is "a decidedly late cutoff." In 2010, the cutoff date was two years and 122 days of service, while the 2009 cutoff was two years and 139 days.
Click here to refresh yourself on the details of the Super Two process, but to summarize, Super Two players will earn a fourth year of salary arbitration (as opposed to the usual three) before reaching free agency. So, all players with less than three years of service time but at least 2.146 (two years, 146 days) of service time quality as Super Twos.
This year's crop of Super Twos includes some of the top young arms in the game — David Price, Rick Porcello, Daniel Bard, Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann and Tyler Clippard. Ryan Roberts is also a Super Two, so he could be in line for an extra payday in the wake of his breakout 2011 season.
- Jose Arredondo, Reds, 2.168
- Scott Atchison, Red Sox, 2.168
- Daniel Bard, Red Sox, 2.148
- Brad Bergesen, Orioles, 2.147
- Emmanuel Burriss, Giants, 2.152
- Tyler Clippard, Nationals, 2.148
- Dexter Fowler, Rockies, 2.168
- Gio Gonzalez, Athletics, 2.162
- Garrett Jones, Pirates, 2.158
- Don Kelly, Tigers, 2.149
- George Kottaras, Brewers, 2.149
- Steven Pearce, Pirates, 2.165
- Rick Porcello, Tigers, 2.170
- Landon Powell, Athletics, 2.153
- David Price, Rays, 2.164
- Ryan Roberts, Diamondbacks, 2.150
- Adam Rosales, Athletics, 2.171
- Will Venable, Padres, 2.155
- Jordan Zimmermann, Nationals, 2.154
websoulsurfer
Super Two status just guaranteed Venable will not be a Padre in 2012.
SalvadorM
you are right my friend .
johnsilver
Scott Atchison just bought himself a non tender. They kept him on a roller coaster ride anyway to Pawtucket as it was the last 2 years.
Thing is, Cots has Boston holding a club option for 2012 @ league min + 0.2m?
0bsessions
I don’t see that happening. Considering the Sox aren’t prone to pinching pennies, he’s too valuable and versatile to cut over an extra million we might lose on him. He’s very useful, but not in the flashy arbitration numbers way. He doesn’t get saves or wins, his K’s aren’t up there. If it ever does go to arbitration, the likelihood of Atchison getting a substantial raise is minimal.
Jim McGrath
Atch has been pretty good for the Sox–probably will be a player Ben Ch. will keep under contract with an ERA in the 3’s. I’ve not seen Venable play but he shows decent speed and some pretty good power for playing in PetCo in addition to being a Princeton grad.
mrjjbond
Finally found it, thanks for the info. Good stuff to know.
garylanglais
So Rick Porcello qualifies as a Super Two but the Tigers hold a club option on him for 2012 for $1.344m. How do the two rectify? Does becoming arb eligible supercede the rookie deal he signed? Does it depend on how the team and player drafted that deal?
Porcello would obviously prefer to take his shot at arbitration but the way I read it, I would side with the Tigers just having to pick up the option and Porcello would have to wait until next offseason for arbitration. Anyone else think otherwise?
BeenThereDoneIt
He proved what exactly? You mean his one really good season amongst his other meh seasons? Romero and Lester both have better numbers in 2011 and 2009. 2010 is the outlier…
-C
The contract supersedes the Super 2 status. Essentially, before reaching arbitration eligibility, player’s contracts are bought yearly at the minimum rate for rookies, second, and third-year players (if the player starts the year in the minors, they will have a split contract, with the minimum MLB pay rate for their time in the bigs).
For Super 2s, the first two years are bought at that rate, but Super 2 eligibility switches that third year to an arbitration year. However, if they’re already under contract, as Porcello is, then arbitration isn’t necessary. It’s exactly the same as when teams buy out arbitration years in lieu of going year-to-year in arbitration with players such as Lincecum, Votto, Longoria, et al.
-C
garylanglais
Long shot argument but if I’m Arn Tellem I’m calling up MLB Commish
office and looking to get Porcello removed from list that determines top
17% (the Super Two’s). Reason why, Gerardo Parra is first guy to miss
Super Two (2.145) and he’s repped by SFX. If I can get Porcello’s 2.170
(2nd highest) removed, my guy becomes a Super Two. Tough argument bc
CBA Clause is silent but it wouldnt stop me from making the call.
Here’s the clause for those who care…
“Player with at least two but less than three years of Major League
service shall be eligible for salary arbitration if: (a) he has
accumulated at least 86 days of service during the immediately preceding
season; and (b) he ranks in the top seventeen percent (17%) (rounded to
the nearest whole number) in total service in the class of Players who
have at least two but less than three years of Major League service,
however accumulated…”
-C
Tommy Hanson isn’t on this list, which means the Braves still have no money to spend. But that’s better than being over budget, I suppose…
-C
johnsmith4
I do like Ricky Romero very much…however….I will take David Price over Romero in a heartbeat…Price was voted 2nd for Cy Young at age 24 which is exceptional.
BeenThereDoneIt
And done what else other than that 1 year. The other years he was worse than Lester and Romero. Statistically factual, zero bias.
mikhelb
You do realize that Lester plays for a better team offensively that can give him more victories while pitching less “good” than other pitchers in less offensive minded teams (Lester has in average 5.4 support runs, Price has 4.8, this past season he had 3.8 runs of suppport per 9 innings in average, Lester had almost 3 runs above him in support with 6.5 per 9 innings)?
For example, both Lester and Price are very similar pitchers, though Price has a better ERA, WHIP, Hits/9 inn, and has a higher percentage of quality starts (63% to Lester’s 60%). In terms of game score (those SABRMetricians will know about it) again both are pretty similar, with Price having a game score average of 56 lifetime, Lester has 55, with Lester’s best score being a 94 and Price’s an 87. In worst game score, Lester can go as low as 10+ (his all time low is a 2), and Price is consistently 20+, which tells us that Price “worst” games are in average “better” than the “worst” games pitched by Lester (that could be due to Lester’s higher percentage of runners on base, which can lead to more opportunities to score against him).
BeenThereDoneIt
And do you realize that’s it’s very easy to pick and choose the stats based solely on which ones will help your point?
All Sabermetrics combined illustrate that both Romero and Lester have been the better overall pitchers over the last 3 years. Your clever stats ommisions aside, you still havent proven anything
KenzAFan
What happened to Roger Bernadina? According to Baseball Reference he has 2.146 of service time.