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Players Avoiding Arbitration: 11/17/22

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The deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players is tomorrow. While tomorrow will surely see a frenzy of deals and non-tenders, some agreements have already started to trickle out today.

For many players, there’s little pressure to agree to terms this week. The deadline for exchanging figures isn’t until January 13, with the hearings taking place in March. However, players that are borderline non-tender candidates might get a low-ball offer at this time, with the team hoping that the looming possibility of a non-tender compels the player to accept. As such, deals at this part of the baseball calendar have a higher likelihood of coming in under projections.

One new wrinkle from the new collective bargaining agreement is that all of these deals will be guaranteed. Previously, teams could cut a player during Spring Training and only pay a portion of the agreed-upon figure. However, the new CBA stipulates that any player who settles on a salary without going to a hearing will be subject to full termination pay, even if released prior to the beginning of the season.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected salaries for each team’s arbitration-eligible players last month but, as mentioned, it’s not uncommon for the deals agreed to at this time to come in below projections. This post may be updated later as more agreements come in…

  • The Cardinals announced that they have a one-year deal in place with right-hander Chris Stratton. The club didn’t disclose the terms but Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that it’s for $2.8MM. Stratton spent the past few years with the Pirates but came over to St. Louis at the deadline as part of the Jose Quintana deal. He had much better results after the jersey switch, as his ERA was 5.09 before but 2.78 after.

Earlier Deals

  • The Giants and left-hander Scott Alexander have agreed to a one-year deal worth about $1.2MM, per @drew_smitty. (The New York Post’s Jon Heyman, more specifically, pegs the exact number as $1.15MM.) The southpaw has appeared in each of the past eight seasons, largely providing effective work but also frequently hitting the injured list. He signed a minor league deal with the Giants in May and got selected in August. He made 17 appearances down the stretch and posted a miniscule 1.04 ERA, impressive enough to convince the Giants to keep him around.
  • The Reds and right-hander Buck Farmer have agreed on a salary of $1.75MM, per Heyman. Having signed a minor league deal in the offseason, Farmer made the Opening Day roster but was DFA’d in May and re-signed. He got back onto the roster in July and finished strong. At the end of the year, he had 47 innings with a 3.83 ERA.

Giants Select Scott Alexander

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The Giants announced they’ve selected reliever Scott Alexander onto the major league roster. Fellow southpaw Thomas Szapucki was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento in a corresponding move. To create a spot on the 40-man roster, San Francisco recalled left-hander Sam Long from the minors and placed him on the major league 60-day injured list.

Alexander is up for the first time as a Giant. The 33-year-old is no stranger to the NL West, having spent the 2018-21 campaigns with the archrival Dodgers. He was a solid situational piece for L.A. skipper Dave Roberts, posting a 3.49 ERA across 111 frames. The sinkerballer only struck out 17.7% of opposing hitters over that stretch, but only Zack Britton and Aaron Bummer had a ground-ball rate superior to Alexander’s 67.5% clip (among relievers with 100+ innings). He held left-handed opponents to a woeful .196/.262/.312 line in 122 plate appearances over that stretch.

Unfortunately, Alexander was also no stranger to the injured list. He lost a good chunk of the 2019 season with forearm inflammation, and he spent most of last year on the IL with a shoulder injury. The Dodgers waived him at the end of last season, and he remained a free agent until signing a minor league deal with San Francisco in March. He’s spent the majority of this year on the IL as well, only reporting to Sacramento three weeks ago. After 7 2/3 scoreless innings over seven games there, Alexander makes his return to the major leagues.

Long recently suffered a right oblique strain in Triple-A, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. His 2022 season comes to an end after 28 MLB appearances and eight outings in Sacramento. The swingman worked to a 3.61 ERA over 42 1/3 innings at the MLB level, albeit with a modest 18.2% strikeout rate. He’ll be paid at the prorated $700K league minimum rate for the rest of the season and collect big league service time for the next five weeks.

 @Drew_Smitty first reported Alexander’s forthcoming promotion yesterday.

Giants Sign Scott Alexander To Minor League Deal

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The Giants have signed left-handed reliever Scott Alexander to a minor league deal, reports Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America.

Alexander, 32, was a sixth round pick of the Royals in 2010. He made it up to the big leagues and pitched out of the Royals’ bullpen over the 2015-2017 seasons. In that time, he threw 94 innings with a 2.78 ERA. His 19.9% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate were both worse than league average, but his success came from an incredible 72.9% ground ball rate.

Prior to the 2018 campaign, he was acquired by the Dodgers in a three-team swap that also involved the White Sox. He performed adequately in his first season as a Dodger, similar to his time in Kansas City. He threw 66 innings that year with a 3.68 ERA, 20.9% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 70.9% ground ball rate. Unfortunately, injuries severely limited him over the subsequent three seasons. From 2019 to 2021, he was only able to log 45 total innings with a 3.20 ERA. Perhaps due to the injuries, his rate stats suffered a bit, with his strikeout rate and ground ball rates falling to 13.3% and 63.7% in that time, respectively. He last pitched in a game July 19, after which shoulder inflammation sent him to the injured list. The club could have brought him back for 2022 via arbitration but outrighted him instead.

Alexander now joins a Giants organization that could use some left-handed help in the bullpen. Jake McGee went on the injured list yesterday, leaving just Jarlin Garcia and Jose Alvarez as southpaw relief options on the big league club. Alexander will join Sam Long as left-handed depth options in Triple-A. Alexander currently has five years and 39 days of service time, meaning he needs 133 more days on a big league roster to reach the six-year plateau. There’s about 145 days left in this season, making it very unlikely Alexander will cross that threshold before season’s end, assuming he will need some time to ramp back up into game shape after such a long absence. If he does earn a roster spot and holds onto it through season’s end, the Giants would have the ability to retain him for 2023 via arbitration.

Dodgers Outright Scott Alexander, Two Others

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The Dodgers outrighted three players off the 40-man roster this evening, the team informed reporters (including Juan Toribio of MLB.com). Relievers Scott Alexander and Jimmie Sherfy and utilityman Andy Burns have all passed through waivers unclaimed. All three players have the right to become minor league free agents.

Alexander is the most notable of the group, as he’d been a productive bullpen option for manager Dave Roberts when healthy. That’s a rather significant qualifier, though, as he hasn’t eclipsed twenty innings in any of the past three seasons. Alexander posted a sub-4.00 ERA in all four seasons as a Dodger (and in two preceding years with the Royals), but he’s been plagued by injuries in recent years.

The southpaw missed a good portion of the 2019 campaign with forearm inflammation, and he missed around four months of this past season because of a shoulder issue. Alexander didn’t pitch after July 19, and Los Angeles elected to clear a 40-man roster spot rather than bring him back for his final year of club control on a projected $1.3MM arbitration salary. Before the injury, the 32-year-old put up numbers right in line with his career trend. He’d tossed 15 1/3 frames of relief with a strong 2.93 ERA, making up for a minuscule 11.9% strikeout percentage with one of the game’s highest ground-ball rates (61.1%).

Sherfy also ended the season on the injured list, in his case due to a bout of elbow inflammation.  L.A. had claimed him from the archrival Giants not long before, and Sherfy’s time in Dodger blue looks likely to consist of just four appearances. Between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the 29-year-old tossed 15 frames of 4.20 ERA ball in 2021. He spent the 2017-19 campaigns with the D-Backs and owns a 3.28 ERA with roughly average strikeout and walk rates (23.8% and 8.3%, respectively) in 60 1/3 big league innings.

Burns played in just nine regular season games before being outrighted off the roster. He was re-selected back after Justin Turner’s season-ending injury during the NLCS necessitated the club adding some extra infield depth. Burns didn’t wind up appearing in a playoff game, though, and he’s likely headed back to the open market. The 31-year-old hit .232/.361/.412 over 216 plate appearances with Triple-A Oklahoma City this year but has very limited MLB experience.

Dodgers Notes: Alexander, Bellinger, Kahnle

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Scott Alexander won’t be returning this season, per Jorge Castillo of the LA Times (via Twitter). Alexander has been out since July 20 because of shoulder inflammation. The southpaw has been a reliable presence out of the Dodgers pen for the past four seasons, tossing 111 innings with a 3.49 ERA/4.24 FIP over that span.

Tommy Kahnle is also done for the year, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. Kahnle has been recovering from Tommy John surgery, and there was some thought that he might be well enough to return this season, but that’s no longer the case. Of course, the Dodgers signed him to a two-year deal with this possibility fully in mind. The plan remains to get him healthy and ready for the start of 2022.

Cody Bellinger’s season soldiers on, though it’s hardly gone as planned. Beyond the almost comically disastrous .159/.237/.291 triple slash line, Bellinger has struggled to stay healthy going all the way back to last year’s World Series. He’s now dealing with a non-displaced rib fracture, suffered in an outfield collision with converted infielder Gavin Lux, per The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya. He missed 53 days earlier this season with a fractured fibula and a little more than a week with a hamstring strain.

Bellinger appears likely to play through this injury and avoid another stint on the injured list, though given that he’s hitting just .073/.174/.122 in September, a bit of rest might be preferable for the Dodgers. Chris Taylor is certainly capable of handling centerfield in the short term, though Taylor himself has been banged up of late.

Besides, the fact that Lux was playing left field at all speaks to where the Dodgers are at right now in terms in their available outfielders. And for all his struggles at the plate, Bellinger is a viable defensive centerfielder, putting up 3.0 OAA, -2 DRS, and 1.2 UZR.

Dodgers Select Andrew Vasquez

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The Dodgers announced they have selected reliever Andrew Vasquez to the big league roster. Ryan Meisinger was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City to clear active roster space, while southpaw Scott Alexander has been transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Los Angeles just acquired Vasquez from the Twins on Tuesday night, sending minor league catcher Stevie Berman back to Minnesota. They’ll immediately bring him up for his first big league action in two years. Vasquez made ten appearances with the Twins from 2018-19, throwing five innings of seven-run ball. The southpaw was passed through outright waivers that season and has spent the past couple years at the highest levels of the Twins’ system.

Vasquez spent this year with Triple-A St. Paul, working 42 1/3 frames across 33 appearances. He posted a 3.61 ERA and struck out a massive 37.4% of batters faced while racking up ground balls on a huge 61.8% of balls in play. He did struggle a bit with walks, but that combination of elite bat-missing ability and grounders against high minors’ hitters sufficiently convinced the L.A. front office to give him another big league look.

Alexander has been on the IL since July 20 with left shoulder inflammation. Today’s IL transfer makes him ineligible to return for at least the next couple weeks. The team hasn’t provided any sort of timetable, but Alexander hasn’t yet begun a minor league rehab assignment.

Dodgers Activate Tony Gonsolin From 60-Day Injured List

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The Dodgers have activated right-hander Tony Gonsolin from the 60-day injured list, per a club announcement. He’s in line to start tonight’s game against the Pirates after sitting out the entire year to date due shoulder inflammation. In a pair of corresponding moves, Los Angeles placed Yoshi Tsutsugo on the 10-day injured list due to a strained right calf and transferred lefty Scott Alexander from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Alexander is on the injured list due to his own bout of shoulder inflammation.

Gonsolin, 27, is one of the game’s most overqualified fifth/sixth starters. He trails Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Trevor Bauer and Julio Urias on the team’s depth chart and may not have cracked the Opening Day rotation, had he been healthy, due to the presence of Dustin May (who has since undergone Tommy John surgery). On nearly any other club in Major League Baseball, Gonsolin would have had a more straightforward opportunity to establish himself as a rotation fixture — an opportunity he may now get in Los Angeles.

From 2019-20, Gonsolin tallied 86 2/3 innings for the Dodgers, pitching to a 2.60 ERA with a 24.5 percent strikeout rate, a 6.5 percent walk rate and a 37.7 percent ground-ball rate. He’s not an overpowering arm, sitting 94.4 mph with his heater, but he’s generated a strong 13 percent swinging-strike rate and induced chases on pitches off the plate at a 33.1 percent clip in his short MLB career to date. Only 14 of his 20 MLB appearances so far have been starts, but he’s been more effective out of the rotation than the bullpen in that short sample.

That level of depth is a clear luxury for the Dodgers, but with May out for the rest of the year — and for a portion of 2022 as well — Gonsolin may get the chance to take the ball every fifth day, assuming his own health holds up. He’s given every indication to this point that he’s more than capable of holding down a permanent rotation job at the MLB level.

Turning to today’s other moves, Tsutsugo will head to the shelf after struggling through his first 31 plate appearances since coming over in a small trade with the Rays. He’s out to a 3-for-25 start (all singles) with six walks and a dozen strikeouts in that time. The hope was likely that he could fill a similar role to Edwin Rios, who’s been lost for the season due to shoulder surgery, but to this point it hasn’t worked out.

Alexander, meanwhile, went on the injured list in early May and will now be out through at least early July as a result. (The 60-day term is retroactive to his original IL placement — not from today forth.) He’s been a solid but up-and-down member of the team’s bullpen since being acquired from the Royals four years ago, pitching to a 3.44 ERA in 107 1/3 innings dating back to 2018. He opened the 2021 season with 11 2/3 frames of 2.31 ERA ball, a 5-to-1 K/BB ratio and a whopping 63.2 percent ground-ball rate — a mark that is actually a fair bit shy of his career 70.4 percent rate.

Dodgers Activate Joe Kelly, Place Scott Alexander On 10-Day IL

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The Dodgers have activated right-handed reliever Joe Kelly and placed lefty Scott Alexander on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to May 3) with inflammation in his pitching shoulder, Juan Toribio of MLB.com tweets.

Kelly, who’s in the final season of a three-year, $25MM guarantee, hasn’t pitched at all in 2021 on account of ongoing shoulder problems. Those issues played a role in limiting Kelly to 10 innings last season, and he revealed last week that he underwent surgery in November. When healthy, the hard-throwing 32-year-old has given the Dodgers 61 1/3 innings of 4.11 ERA ball with a 26.5 percent strikeout rate, a 10.5 percent walk rate and a stellar 60.6 percent groundball rate.

The addition of Kelly is a step forward for Los Angeles, but the loss of Alexander represents a step in the wrong direction for the reigning World Series champions. Alexander has been one of the Dodgers’ most effective relievers this year, having recorded a 2.31 ERA in 11 2/3 frames. While Alexander has only totaled five strikeouts, he has offset that by allowing one walk, and the 31-year-old has induced grounders at a 63.2 percent clip.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 12/2/20

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With the non-tender deadline coming today at 7pm CT, expect quite a few players to agree to contracts for the 2021 season, avoiding arbitration in advance.  In many (but not all) cases, these deals — referred to as “pre-tender” deals because they fall prior to the deadline — will fall shy of expectations and projections.  Teams will sometimes present borderline non-tender candidates with a “take it or leave it” style offer which will be accepted for fear of being non-tendered and sent out into an uncertain market.  Speculatively, such deals could increase in 2020 due to the economic uncertainty sweeping through the game, although there are also widespread expectations of record non-tender numbers.

You can track all of the arbitration and non-tender activity here, and we’ll also run through today’s smaller-scale pre-tender deals in this post.  You can also check out Matt Swartz’s arbitration salary projections here.

Latest Agreements

Earlier Agreements

  • Twins righty Jose Berrios will earn $6.1MM with a $500K signing bonus in 2021, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports. Catcher Mitch Garver will rake in $1.875MM, per Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. Center fielder Byron Buxton ($5.125MM) and reliever Taylor Rogers (terms not released) also agreed to deals, according to Phil Miller of the Star Tribune.
  • The Phillies have deals with starter Zach Eflin ($4.45MM) and relievers Hector Neris ($5MM), David Hale ($850K) and Seranthony Dominguez ($727,500), Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia, Heyman and Todd Zolecki of MLB.com relay.
  • The Marlins and first baseman Garrett Cooper have a $1.8MM agreement that could max out at $2.05MM with performance bonuses, Craig Mish of Sportsgrid tweets.
  • The Brewers are keeping catcher Manny Pina in the fold for $1.65MM, according to Heyman. They’re also retaining first baseman Daniel Vogelbach for $1.4MM, Nightengale reports.
  • The Giants and outfielder Austin Slater have a one-year, $1.15MM deal, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.The club also reached a $925K agreement with lefty Wandy Peralta and a $700K pact with righty Trevor Gott, Heyman tweets.
  • The Cubs are bringing back hurlers Dan Winkler ($900K), Colin Rea ($702,500) and Kyle Ryan ($800K), Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Ryan’s agreement is a split contract that features a $250K minor league salary.
  • The Mets are retaining lefty Steven Matz for $5.2MM, Nightengale tweets. Matz had a brutal campaign in 2020 with a 9.68 ERA/7.76 FIP over 30 2/3 innings in 2020, but the Mets will give him a chance to rebound.
  • The Padres and lefty Matt Strahm have a one-year, $2MM deal, Nightengale reports. Strahm gave the Padres a 2.61 ERA/4.93 FIP in 20 2/3 innings in 2020.
  • Outfielder Guillermo Heredia, whom the Mets claimed from Pittsburgh in August, will earn $1MM in 2021, according to Nightengale.
  • The Astros and reliever Austin Pruitt have settled for $617, 500, per Heyman. The right-hander missed the season with elbow issues.
  • The Royals and outfielder Jorge Soler have agreed to a one-year, $8.05MM deal with $250K in incentives, Nightengale reports. Soler was a 48-home run hitter in 2019, but his production went backward this past season, in which he slashed .228/.326/.443 with eight HRs in 174 trips to the plate.
  • The Red Sox have kept relievers Matt Barnes ($4.4MM) and Ryan Brasier ($1.25MM) and catcher Kevin Plawecki ($1.6MM), per tweets from Nightengale, Robert Murray of FanSided and Heyman. Barnes has been a solid reliever as a member of the Red Sox, though he yielded more than five walks per nine and upward of four runs per nine in 2020. Brasier was more successful this past season, as he tossed 25 frames of 3.96 ERA/3.15 FIP ball and averaged better than 10 strikeouts per nine. Plawecki had a nice year as the backup to Christian Vazquez, as he batted .341/.393/.463 in 89 PA.
  • The Giants and southpaw Jarlin Garcia have settled for $950K, according to Heyman. Garcia is coming off an 18 1/3-inning effort in which he posted a near-perfect 0.49 (with an impressive 3.14 FIP) and 6.87 K/9 against 3.44 BB/9.
  • The Marlins have agreed to a one-year, $4.3MM deal with first baseman Jesus Aguilar, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. The 30-year-old slugger put up strong numbers in his first year with the Fish, slashing .277/.352/.457 with eight long balls in 216 plate appearances.
  • The Giants and outfielder Alex Dickerson settled at a year and $2MM, tweets Nightengale. The 30-year-old slugger has a lengthy injury history but has been excellent in limited work with the Giants, including a .298/.371/.576 slash in 170 plate appearances this past season.
  • Luis Cessa will be back with the Yankees on a one-year deal, tweets Nightengale. He’ll earn $1.05MM. The righty notched a 3.32 ERA and 3.79 FIP with a 17-to-7 K/BB ratio in 21 2/3 innings this past season. Fellow righty Ben Heller will also return, the team announced, though it didn’t disclose financial details.
  • First baseman Matt Olson and the Athletics settled on a one-year deal worth $5MM, tweets Nightengale. The 26-year-old Olson’s .198/.310/.424 slash was an obvious step back from his 2019 campaign, but he’s still viewed as a vital part of the club’s future moving forward.
  • The Braves and righty Luke Jackson agreed to a one-year deal, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. The 29-year-old was rocked for a 6.84 ERA in this year’s shortened slate of games but posted a 3.84 ERA and 3.24 FIP with better than 13 K/9 as one of the team’s steadiest relievers in 2019. The contract is valued at $1.9MM, per a team announcement.
  • The Brewers are bringing back catcher Omar Narvaez for one year and $2.5MM, Heyman tweets. Narvaez was a very good offensive catcher from 2o16-19 with the White Sox and Mariners, but he struggled last season after the M’s traded him to the Brewers. Thanks in part to a career-worst 31 percent strikeout rate, Narvaez could only muster a .176/.294/.269 line and a paltry two HRs in 126 plate appearances. Nevertheless, he’s in line to return to the Brewers for a second season.
  • The Brewers have agreed to a one-year, $2MM contract with shortstop Orlando Arcia, Nightengale relays. Arcia endured serious struggles on offense in prior years, but the 26-year-old managed a respectable .260/.317/.416 line with five home runs over 189 plate appearances this past season.
  • The Phillies and catcher Andrew Knapp have reached a one-year, $1.1MM agreement, per Nightengale. Typically a light-hitting backstop, Knapp batted a career-best .278/.404/.444 in 89 plate appearances in 2020. He’s currently the No. 1 catcher on a Phillies team that could lose J.T. Realmuto in free agency.
  • Pirates infielder Erik Gonzalez agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.225MM, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. It was the second year of arb eligibility for Gonzalez, whose glovework will earn him a contract despite a brutal .227/.255/.359 batting line in 193 plate appearances in 2020.
  • The Royals and Hunter Dozier agreed to a one-year deal worth $2.72MM in entirely guaranteed money, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports.  More is available to Dozier via contract incentives.  Dozier hit .228/.344/.392 over 186 PA after missing over the first two weeks of the season recovering from a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
  • The Red Sox agreed to an $870K deal with right-hander Austin Brice for the 2021 season, as per Nightengale.  Brice posted a 5.95 ERA, 11.4 K/9, and 5.9 BB/9 over 19 2/3 innings in his first season in Boston, and was considered a potential non-tender candidate.
  • The Twins and righty Tyler Duffey agreed to a one-year, $2.2MM pact, SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson reports.  According to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney, Duffey’s deal is fully guaranteed.
  • The Braves agreed to a one-year, $900K deal with southpaw Grant Dayton, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets.  Dayton had a 2.30 ERA over 27 1/3 innings in 2020.
  • The Braves announced an agreement with utilityman Johan Camargo on a one-year, $1.36MM deal.  Camargo was thought to be a non-tender candidate after struggling to a .222/.267/.378 slash line in 375 plate appearances over the last two seasons, but he will return for a fifth year in Atlanta.
  • The White Sox and left-hander Jace Fry agreed to a one-year deal worth $862.5K, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).  Fry posted a 3.66 ERA, 2.00 K/BB rate, and 11.0 K/9 over 19 2/3 innings in 2020, and he has strong overall career numbers against left-handed batters.
  • The Orioles agreed with second baseman Yolmer Sanchez on a one-year deal worth $1MM, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter).  Baltimore claimed Sanchez off waivers from the White Sox at the end of October.  A Gold Glove winner in 2019, Sanchez was non-tendered by Chicago prior to last year’s deadline, though after signing a minors deal with the Giants, he returned to the White Sox on another minors deal and appeared in 11 games on the South Side.
  • The Twins agreed to a one-year deal worth roughly $700K with left-hander Caleb Thielbar, The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman reports (via Twitter).  2020 marked Thielbar’s first taste of MLB action since 2015, as the southpaw worked his way back from independent ball to post a 2.25 ERA, 2.44 K/BB rate, and 9.9 K/9 over 20 innings for Minnesota.
  • The Dodgers and left-hander Scott Alexander have agreed to a one-year, $1MM deal, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (Twitter link).  Alexander posted a 2.92 ERA over 12 1/3 innings out of the Los Angeles bullpen this season, recording an equal number of walks and strikeouts (nine).  The southpaw was thought to be a potential non-tender candidate given his relative lack of usage and his non-inclusion on the Dodgers’ playoff roster, but the team will retain Alexander for his second arb-eligible year.  ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (via Twitter) adds the noteworthy detail that Alexander’s $1MM salary is fully guaranteed, as opposed to the usual contracts for arbitration-eligible players that allow their teams to release them prior to Opening Day and only pay a fraction of the agreed-upon salary.

Players Avoiding Arbitration Prior To 2019 Non-Tender Deadline

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With tonight’s 8pm ET deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players looming, there’ll be several players who agree to one-year contracts for the 2020 season today. It’s common for the day of the non-tender deadline to be a big one for arbitration agreements, though it’s also worth noting that many of the players who agree to terms today will do so at a rate that’s lower than the salary figures projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.

Broadly speaking, players who agree to terms on a salary this far in advance tend to be those who were at risk of being non-tendered, and their teams are able to use tonight’s deadline as leverage in bringing about a deal that saves them a bit of cash. A look at some of the early instances of players agreeing to terms reveals this to be true already; Mike Zunino ($4.5MM salary vs. $4.9MM projection), Wilmer Difo ($1MM salary vs. $1.2MM projection) and Scott Alexander ($875K salary vs. $1MM projection) have all agreed to lesser terms rather than risk being cast out into the free-agent market.

We’ll keep track of today’s players who avoid arbitration in this post and update throughout the day…

  • The Padres have a deal for $1.5MM with infielder Greg Garcia, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. That’s a shade under his $1.7MM projection for the 30-year-old.
  • Infielder Orlando Arcia has avoided arbitration with the Brewers, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). Though he’s set to lose some playing time, it seems Arcia will be expected to retain a notable role. He’s considered a talented defender at short and was long expected to come around with the bat, but it hasn’t happened yet.
  • Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes is in agreement on a $1.1MM deal, per Robert Murray (Twitter link). It’s a guaranteed deal, which isn’t standard for arbitration pacts. Barnes had projected at $1.3MM on the heels of a disappointing season. It seems he’ll be asked to function as the club’s second backstop in 2020.

Earlier Moves

  • The Rangers have a deal in place with right-hander Nick Goody, the club announced. He’ll earn $915K, according to MLB.com’s TR Sullivan (via Twitter). Goody projected to earn $1.1MM, so he’s taking a discount on that mark with his new club.
  • Just-acquired righty Jharel Cotton has agreed to a $640K deal with the Cubs, Rosenthal tweets. Cotton had projected at $800K but he’s surely focused first and foremost on getting a significant MLB opportunity. He didn’t quite make it back to the majors in 2019 after a long injury layoff but figures to represent a swingman option for the Chicago club in 2020.
  • Outfielder Alex Dickerson and lefty Wandy Peralta are in agreement with the Giants, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter links). Dickerson settled for $925K, which is well under his $1.2MM projected earning power. The 29-year-old has had trouble staying healthy but usually hits when he is on the field. He rewarded the San Francisco organization for taking a shot on him last year by turning in a .290/.351/.529 batting line in 171 plate appearances. As for Peralta, he lands right at his projected value with a $805K salary. The 28-year-old was claimed off waivers late in the 2019 season.
  • The White Sox and James McCann avoided arbitration with a one-year deal worth $5.4MM, tweets ESPN’s Jeff Passan. McCann’s deal checks in a half million dollars north of his $4.9MM projection. Chicago’s addition of Yasmani Grandal has likely relegated McCann to backup duties, so he’ll be a rather expensive second catcher for the South Siders. A free agent next winter, McCann hit .273/.328/.460 with a career-high 18 home runs, but his bat went dormant in the season’s final few months and his .359 BABIP seems particularly ripe for regression.
  • The Athletics avoided arbitration with left-handed reliever T.J. McFarland by agreeing to a one-year contract worth $1.8MM, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. That salary effectively puts McFarland in line for the same salary he’d have received had he had his $1.85MM club option exercised by the Diamondbacks. Arizona, however, bought him out for $50K and then ran him through waivers, at which point the A’s claimed him. The 30-year-old posted a 4.82 ERA with a middling 5.6 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 56 2/3 innings this past season, but he’s a ground-ball behemoth (61.1 percent). He’ll be a free agent next winter and had been projected at $2.1MM.
  • Infielder Ehire Adrianza and the Twins agreed on a $1.6MM salary for the upcoming season, Nightengale tweets. The versatile utilityman hit .272/.349/.416 in 236 plate appearances while appearing at all four infield spots and both outfield corners. Adrianza, a free agent next winter, was projected at $1.9MM.
  • Outfielder Travis Jankowski agreed to a rare arbitration pay cut with the Reds, Bobby Nightengale Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. After earning $1.165MM in 2019, he’ll be owed $1.05MM in 2020 if he makes the club. A fractured wrist cost him much of the season in 2019, and he was just 4-for-22 when healthy and in the Majors. Jankowski did have a nice season in Triple-A, though (.393 OBP in 39 games), and the Reds gave up some international funds to acquire him, which seemingly indicated that they planned to tender him a contract. He was projected to earn $1.2MM.

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