Yankees, Nathan Eovaldi Avoid Arbitration

While the majority of the 156 players that filed for salary arbitration last week have agreed to terms with their teams, either on a one-year deal for 2016 or on an extension, the cases of more than 30 players remain unresolved. You can track the status of each case using MLBTR’s 2016 Arbitration Tracker, and we’ll keep track of all of today’s smaller deals to avoid arbitration in this post (all referenced projections via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)…

• The Yankees and right-hander Nathan Eovaldi have agreed to a $5.6MM salary for the 2016 season, thereby avoiding arbitration, a source tells ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand (Twitter link). Eovaldi had filed at $6.3MM, while the team came back with a $4.9MM figure (as can be seen in our Arbitration Tracker), meaning the team and Eovaldi settled at the midpoint between the figures that were exchanged. The 25-year-old Eovaldi, who worked to a 4.20 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 in 154 1/3 innings last season, will fall $100K shy of Swartz’s $5.7MM projection. Eovaldi figures to play a significant role in a Yankees’ rotation that comes with a fair amount of uncertainty in 2016. He becomes the second player to avoid arbitration with the Yankees in the past day, as shortstop Didi Gregorius and the club settled on a 2016 salary yesterday as well. With those two joining Michael Pineda and Dustin Ackley as players to settle on 2016 salaries, newly acquired Aroldis Chapman is the Yankees’ only remaining arbitration case that needs to be resolved.