It's arbitration time for the Phillies
by Scott Butler 1/19/10
The numbers are out! The Phillies and the three arbitration bound players, Shane Victorino, Joe Blanton, and Carlos Ruiz released their figures to the public. Here are the numbers given by each player and the Phillies:
Shane Victorino
Team:
$4.75 million
Player:
$5.8 million
Joe Blanton
Team:
$7.5 million
Player: $10.25 million
Carlos Ruiz
Team: $1.7 million
Player: $2.5 million
In the case of Shane Victorino, it looks like the Phillies are trying to work a multi-year deal. Victorino has two years left of arbitration (including this year) and the contract would be for at least that long and probably longer. Victorino is 29 years old and made $3.125 million in 2009.
Joe Blanton will be a little trickier. With both sides almost $3 million apart, they have their work cut out for them. Blanton is 29 and made $5.475 million last year, in which he went 12-8 with a 4.05 ERA, struck out 163 batters and walked 59 in 195 1/3 innings. If nothing else, Blanton is a workhorse. He has made more than 30 starts every season and has pitched no less than 194 1/3 innings during that time. He has a career record of 63-54 with a 4.21 ERA. This is his last year of arbitration eligibility and I bet we won't see him after this year.
This is an interesting situation, because there is a good chance Blanton's salary was a big reason why we didn't keep Cliff Lee. Boy would it look bad if the Phillies pay Blanton less than they would have paid Cliff Lee, who will only cost $9 million this year.
This is the first year of arbitration for Carlos Ruiz . After making around $400,000 last year, he will get a nice little raise this year. Chooch is almost 30 and hit .255 with nine homers and 43 RBIs in 107 games in 2009. It would be nice to see Ruiz win this battle because of what he had done in the playoffs. Some would argue he was the MVP in 2008 and was really clutch again last year. In 32 career post-season games, Ruiz hit .303 with 3 homers and 13 RBI. He also has 12 walks, giving him an on base percentage of .491 and a slugging of .591. I don't think that counts at all in arbitration, but it doesn't hurt.
This is a much lighter arbitration group than last year when the Phillies had 10 arbitration-eligible players and settled with all players. The Phillies haven't gone to arbitration since 2008 with Howard making $10 million. Before that was Travis Lee in 2001.
Arbitration hearings will be scheduled from Feb. 1-21 and teams can negotiate until right before the hearings. The Phillies try to avoid arbitration in almost every single case for one simple reason. Who wants to tell a panel all of the bad qualities of a guy you want on your team?
Baseball’s salary arbitration system determines pay for players with between three and six years of service, and certain "Super 2" players who have accumulated at least 86 days of service in the previous year. The arbitrator's decision is based on stats and years of service. They will look at similar players with the same years of service and say "Manny is better than Moe and worse than Jack, so we will pick a number in the middle."
The decision is all-or-nothing. It's winner takes all. Let's use the Joe Blanton situation, for example, where the Phillies offered $7.5 million and Blanton wants $10.25 million. The midpoint between those two numbers is $8.875 million, so if the arbitrator decides the proper is one penny higher than $8.875, Blanton gets all $10.25 million. One penny less, he only gets $7.5 million. |
