You can find a primer on how pre-arbitration salaries work right here. In essence, teams can renew players at whatever price they wish, so long as it meets or exceeds the MLB minimum — which currently sits at $535K. But all teams consider at least nominal raises for players with prior experience. If you really want to dig into the details of the process — and how different teams approach it — be sure to check out this close look from MLBTR’s Zach Links.
We have already covered a few notable salaries for 2017: Kris Bryant set a record at $1.05MM; Mookie Betts didn’t agree with the Red Sox, but still got $950K; and Astros star Carlos Correa was renewed at the minimum after failing to see eye to eye. Here are a few of the latest numbers, all via the Twitter feed of Jon Heyman of Fan Rag unless otherwise noted:
- The Indians agreed to a $579,300 salary with star shortstop Francisco Lindor. A well-rounded performer at just 23 years of age, Lindor made his first All-Star team after landing just shy of Correa in the 2015 AL Rookie of the Year voting. It’ll be interesting to see whether the sides continue to talk money over the next few years in an effort to reach a long-term deal.
- The Reds renewed outfielder Adam Duvall at $577,500. He was evidently looking for more after a breakout 2016 campaign in which he hit 33 homers but lagged in the on-base department (.297 OBP). Duvall has established himself as the team’s regular left fielder, though, and did out-earn two other power-hitting players in the same 1+ service class.
- Third baseman Miguel Sano agreed to a $572,500 payday from the Twins, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports. The 23-year old swatted 25 long balls but fell off a bit from his torrid rookie year. He’ll still get a fairly solid pay boost, though, in his 1+ service-class year.
- Fellow young hot corner slugger Maikel Franco agreed to a $560K deal with the Phillies. Franco, 22, went through a similar sophomore slump as Sano while matching him in the long ball department. These two seem likely to be compared for years to come. Franco, though, will likely qualify for arbitration a year earlier, as he’ll easily reach Super Two status next winter so long as he stays on the MLB roster for the bulk of the upcoming season.
- The Rangers will pay second baseman Rougned Odor $563,180 in their agreement. The hard-nosed 23-year old delivered 33 bombs from the middle infield, though like Duvall he also fell short of hopes with a .296 OBP. Texas is already weighing a much heftier commitment, though, with reports suggesting the sides are in talks on a deal that could exceed $50MM in guaranteed money.
- Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto was rewarded for his promising 2016 campaign with a $562,500 deal, per Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald (via Twitter). Realmuto, who’ll soon turn 26, will reach arbitration next winter, where he’ll be paid handsomely if he can repeat his numbers from last season. Over 545 plate appearances, Realmuto slashed .303/.343/.428 and provided 11 home runs and a dozen steals — though he was aided by a .357 BABIP.
Tribe needs to lock up Lindor early.
Ya he is going to get PAID if he hits the open market. Luckily for you that won’t be for a few years
Small error, but Franco is 24, not 22.
I thought that looked odd. Franco gets overlooked a lot as a solid hitter
Given that baseball is a 9 billion dollar industry, these guys are way underpaid.
Okay, but there’s, what, 1000 players in the league? That’s 9 million per player. The guys above are underpaid relative to their ability, but there is a reason there is a pay scale. Still, these guys already earn twice that of a president’s yearly salary and most doctors and lawyers.
To be fair, the President’s salary is set by congress and people don’t pay to watch doctors and lawyers do their jobs.
Also if you compare ALL baseball players to ALL doctors, there likely isn’t much of a discrepancy. For every major leaguer there are 5-10 minor leaguers making next to nothing. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s the way it is. Side note, this may be the first time I’ve ever heard a complaint about athletes making more than lawyers.
Maybe you should buy the industry and then pay them what they are worth. The Garment Industry is larger and many of their workers work harder and longer (at much younger ages) and get paid at less than a living wage. But please, YOU take the soap box for the future millionaires.
Nice try
It’s scary how many of the future “stars” have come up to the big leagues with no idea of how to take a walk, and strike out rates that would make Chris Carter proud. I do understand that once these players start the clock ticking in the bigs, they only have 6 years before they are gone, but shouldn’t that inspire the team to make sure the player is ready before starting that clock? They can also be in the minors for up to 6 years. I’d much rather see my team bring up a more “developed” prospect at 25, than a raw prospect at 23. I don’t understand why so many players get rushed. Gordon Beckham and Dustin Ackley may well have become stars if they had time in the minors to develop.
While you are correct in that organizations should be wary of rushing their prospects, Ackley probably isn’t a good example. He had a fantastic rookie campaign, but had his swing messed with upon entering his sophomore year. I won’t blame position changes with him. The Mariners just screwed with an already functional swing too many times.
The current regime has done a great job for Seattle, but man did they miss/not develop correctly on some top three draft picks (Ackley, Hultzen, Zunino) that could have set their team up big time.
Gordon Beckham was not rushed. He was fully ready to be a major league player and was far from a raw prospect. His problem was/is that he couldn’t make the necessary adjustments once major league pitchers started learning his tendencies. OPS’ing .900 in the minors for a couple years would NOT have helped him adjust to big league pitching. At some point, these top end prospects have to experience failure and learn how to deal with it. For a high quality, developed college prospect like Beckham, that was always going to come at the major league level.
And even if you do think he was rushed, he’s a pretty poor example of what you’re describing. He slashed .270/.347/.460 in 103 games his rookie year with a 41/65 BB/K.
I think most players are happy they get paid to play a game for a living. Yeah they want to get paid as much as possible because they can use that money to setup future generations. Many like to do charity work so again more money means they can help more people. I’m sure there are some greedy jerks there too.
One other thing, a lot of players see salary as just another competition and they want to be the “best paid at their position” and others see it as a respect thing. Finally the higher paid you are, the more job security you have. Look at Sandoval. If he wasn’t earning so much money he would have been DFAed. The team kept him, he worked really hard and looks like he’s back better than ever (maybe).
All in all it’s #firstworldproblems and it’s fun for us to talk about when we pay $80 for that crappy seat to watch the game.