Yankees Avoid Arbitration With Michael Pineda

The Yankees have avoided arbitration with righty Michael Pineda, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). He’ll receive $7.4MM in the deal, which is $400K shy of MLBTR’s projection.

Pineda, who’ll soon turn 28, earned a solid raise over his $4.3MM salary from 2015 despite an unsightly 4.82 ERA and just six wins. He did log 175 2/3 innings and struck out 207 batters on the year (against just 53 walks), which no doubt aided his cause.

This is Pineda’s final season of club control before he reaches the open market. His K/BB tallies remain impressive, but Pineda has been hurt by surrendering a lofty BABIP (.339) and too many home runs (1.4 per nine innings).