OK, so I was listening to MLB Home Plate on XM this morning, and they were talking about offering players arbitration to ensure they will get compensatory draft picks if the players sign elsewhere.
What's this all about? And why did some teams no offer arbitration to anyone (Yanks) when they could get picks in return?
This has been a long-standing component of the free-agent process, dating all the way back to when Curt Flood went to the Supreme Court. (If memory serves, the first actual case of salary arbitration stems from Andy Messersmith in the mid-'70s.)
The way it works is pretty simple: The Elias Sports Bureau, MLB's official statistician, each year classifies free agents as Type A (the top 20 percent at each position, based on the previous two years' performance) and Type B (the top 21 to 40 percent at each position, again based on the previous two years).
Say, for example, the Milwaukee Brewers had signed Ryan Dempster (who, based on his decent 2007 and lights-out 2008, was a Type A free agent starting pitcher), the Cubs would have received the Brewers' first-round draft pick, as well as a "sandwich" supplemental pick in-between the first and second rounds --
if and only if, however, the Cubs had offered arbitration. Similarly, if a team signs a Type B free agent (who had been offered arbitration), the team losing the player gets an aforementioned "sandwich" pick.
You see, teams can offer their free agents-to-be salary arbitration, which a player then has the choice to accept or decline. If the player declines, no harm is done, and he can then negotiate with all other teams (including his original team). If the player
accepts, however, he and the team are now inextricably tied; the player's agent and the team will submit separate "bids" for a one-year salary, and then argue those amounts in front of an arbitrator, who then decides which is more fair.
The reason some teams don't offer arbitration to their players is two-fold: For one, if a team wants to re-sign a player, but doesn't want to pay out the nose -- or if a team really doesn't care if a player leaves, and doesn't care about the draft pick -- offering arbitration is a risk.
Secondly, the arbitration process can be
brutal, with the team essentially forced into arguing to the arbitrator that "No, this player
does not deserve more money, and these are the reasons why." It can cause bad blood between player and team, poisoning the waters for a long-term contract signing.
The Mariners would receive right-handed pitcher Aaron Heilman, outfielder Endy Chavez and first baseman Mike Carp from the Mets along with outfielder Franklin Gutierrez from the Indians.
