Two of the Braves’ remaining arbitration situations have been resolved. As first reported by the Associated Press, Dansby Swanson has won his case and will receive a $10MM salary. Adam Duvall, meanwhile, will make $9.275MM after losing his case. Both players will reach free agency after this season, as this was the final trip through the arb process for each.
Swanson and the Braves had an $800K dispute, with the team filing at $9.2MM. That came on the heels of a .248/.311/.449 showing last year, in which the shortstop started 158 regular season games. Swanson hit 27 home runs and drove in 88 runners, and he’ll be rewarded with a $4MM pay bump over that season’s $6MM salary in spite of the pedestrian batting average and on-base marks.
Duvall, meanwhile, blasted a career-high 38 homers in 146 games split between the Marlins and Braves. He only hit .228 with a meager .281 OBP, but the 33-year-old tied for fourth in Major League Baseball with 113 runs batted in. Duvall also claimed his first career Gold Glove Award for his work in right field, leading him to forego his end of a $7MM mutual option for the 2022 campaign. That was an easy call, as the Braves tendered him an arbitration contract, and he’ll make a fair bit more money than the option price even after losing at his hearing. Duvall’s camp had been seeking a $10.125MM salary, so he’ll land $1MM shy of his goal.
Of course, the differences in the 2022 campaigns for Swanson and Duvall are striking. The former is hitting at arguably a career-best level, carrying a .279/.348/.428 slash line and positioning himself well for a lucrative multi-year contract next winter. Duvall, on the other hand, has stumbled to a personal-worst .199/.260/.309 and has hit just three homers through 54 games.
The players’ respective performances this year are not supposed to play any role in the arbitrators’ decisions. The hearings are typically conducted over the offseason, but the lockout caused unsettled cases to linger into the season. Nevertheless, the cases presented are to be determined based on the players’ pre-2022 track records, their platform salaries and the performance of previous players in their respective service buckets.
Swanson and Duvall were two of five Atlanta players not to come to terms with the team before going to a hearing. The Braves won cases over both third baseman Austin Riley and reliever Luke Jackson earlier this year. Starter Max Fried still has a pending hearing, with a modest gap between the sides’ respective $6.85MM and $6.6MM filings.
Good for him!
Swanson shouldn’t be winning arbitration cases
Why not?
And Duvall shouldn’t be losing and still making over $9m.
He suck
We must be talking about different Dansby Swansons.
I would lock Dansby and Max up, I think Dansby is one of the best ss in the game as well as Max.
Braves got a much better deal for Shelby Miller than the Cardinals did, that’s for certain
Duvall should have to pay money to the Braves
Walking is more important to this author than driving in runs lol smh
Walking is more of a skill than driving in runs. Evaluate the skill not the luck
If you play the game as a team sport and not as an individual then situational hitting is an extremely important/hard skill to acquire. Don’t fall for the nonsense high powered executives tell you my man.
Situational hitting is not a skill.
No you’re crazy, without run producers that either hit homeruns or doubles there would be no need for walks? It takes 5 walks to score a run, only 1 homerun, or 2 doubles… so 5 walks=1 homerun or 5 walks= 2 Doubles? If baseball was chess singles and walks are pawns, doubles are bishops, triples are rooks, and homeruns are queens
Walking is an individual actual skill. Driving in runs is very much depends upon the actions of OTHER players. Lol all you want, you’re the one who isn’t understanding things.
Alright, I’m just gonna say it arbitration happening in the midst of the season clearly has had an impact on every player who has either won or lost their cases on the Braves roster. Yes yes, some of you fans will say “you’re an idiot, that’s not how that works!” But I say, BULL! Swanson on a hot steak, gets a great payday, Austin Riley lost his when he was on a cool streak, duvall lost his on a cool streak, Luke Jackson losing while injured. I mean, come on…. It’s clearly obvious. Betcha Fried wins his (as he should). I don’t think Swanson should have won his, duvall is debatable for sure, Riley should have won his, and Jackson should have won his. There… based on last years results, that’s how it truly should have been
You’re an idiot. That’s not how it works.
It’s not how it’s supposed to work, but we are talking about billionaire shysters who would sell out their families for a buck so I wouldn’t put anything past them.
Ok at the end of all the arb cases we should look at winning and losing and see if there is a correlation to what type of streak they are on
My point is, arb cases should never happen during the season lockout or not. Especially a owner driven lockout. Current results clearly impacted the decision of what should have strictly been historical results
Heh, the Braves “win”. They didn’t vanquish or conquer or otherwise defeat?
They prevailed.
Maybe this was mentioned earlier in the arb hearing reports, but how are paychecks tabulated?
I assume they get paid at the teams filing rate until the decision is determined. Then if the player wins, the team pays the player for those previous games. That’s the only way I can imagine it working in the MLB system since each game check is taxed according to the hosting teams state.
Yes, that’s how it’s working this year.
The arbitrators should almost always side with the players! Just do it
They gave Cody Bellinger $17m for this season.
Good
Braves OBLITERATE Adam Duvall I think you mean.
Great for Swanson. He will be missed next year.
We need him back, we have nothing to replace him
They should offer Dansby a 5/$50M contract and see if he bites.