Time to Play the Arbitration Offer Home Game
TOWER GROVE — Long about time the Thanksgiving double whammy of football and tryptophan wear off from this weekend, the next key date in baseball’s free agency will be on the horizon.
Next Tuesday is the deadline for teams to offer arbitration to their free agents.
As much as the non-tender date — which comes later in December — has served to offer a secondary market of free agents, the arbitration deadline serves to help define this first wave of free agents. Teams have the right to offer arbitration to the free agents they want to keep, or ones they want to be compensated for should that player sign elsewhere. This is where the Type A and Type B free agent tags come into play. Simply:
- A Type A free agent, like Matt Holliday, is worth two draft picks to the Cardinals if another team signs the outfielder this winter. One is a first-round pick from the signing team (unless the signing team picks in the first half of the first round, like the Mets) and the other is a supplemental pick.
- A Type B free agent, like Joel Pineiro, is worth one draft pick to the Cardinals if he signs with another team. The pick is a supplemental pick.
The trigger for draft-pick compensation is the offer of arbitration. To get compensation, a team must offer its Type A or Type B free agent arbitration and have that player either a) reject arbitration or b) sign before the deadline to reject said arbitration. This is not as cut-and-dry a decision as it would seem. Arbitration is a clear and present danger to some organizations when it comes to setting salaries.
Consider, for example, the Cardinals and third baseman Troy Glaus. Glaus is a Type B free agent and the Cardinals do have the right to offer him arbitration and try to get compensation. The risk, however, is that Glaus would accept arbitration. And why wouldn’t he? He’s coming off a season lost to injury, and isn’t likely to get an offer anywhere close to reflecting his career production. The team that signs him will negotiate based around the missed season and the uncertain condition of his shoulder (read: bat). Arbitration is not bound by such market forces. In fact, arbitration is explicitly removed from the marketplace, with rules in place that say the arbiter cannot factor in the economic condition of the team, the leagues or the market. Arbitration salaries are based on the type of player and the type of production from that player.
Glaus does have a resume to build an arbitration case around, and he’d win a salary more reflective of his overall — or at least most-recent full seasons — production than just a singular, injury-ruined one.
The Cardinals have two no-brainer decisions when it comes to arbitration offers and two intriguing ones. Glaus and Holliday are the no-brainers, because if Holliday accepts arbitration what’s the worst that can happen — the Cardinals have him signed through 2010 at a salary set by arbitration vs. one set by the market Scott Boras is set to generate? Big deal. Joel Pineiro and Mark DeRosa are less clear.
As Type B free agents they don’t promise the first-round pick of a Type A.
The choice comes down to the value of the draft pick over the expected arbitration-set salary of the player. Don’t ignore how much that players means to the team vs. how much payroll flexibility does.
And now for you to fill the time between turkey dinner, Black Friday and Sunday’s Rams game, here’s the Arbitration Offer Home Game. What would you do with the Cardinals’ two less-obvious free agent?
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Loading …The Cardinals do not have interest in bringing Glaus back, preferring to open the position up to rookie David Freese if possible. Glaus has drawn attention from several teams, according to his agent, and a few have mentioned their wish to look at him at first base or designated hitter. Here are the polls for Glaus and Holliday, and if you have a take that’s different than the likely arbitration answer, please explain.
There’s certainly a counter-intuitive argument that can be made in each case.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
I think that all are no-brainers…
1) Holliday - Worst case scenario you have Holliday back on a 1yr deal at right about his market value. Teams dream of this scenario. It would be beyond idiotic to not offer arb to Holliday.
2) DeRosa - He is one of the hottest free agents because of his versatility, salary and Type B status. He will garner multiple multi year offers for at or more than he would get in arbitration. The Cards can only dream of having him back on a 1yr commitment for about 7mil. It would be idiotic not to offer.
3) Pineiro - While not quite as clear cut as Holliday and DeRosa, it still makes great sense to offer arbitration. Due to Pineiro’s excellent health record and strike throwing ability he will likely garner multiple 2 and 3yr contract offers. Although they may average slightly less in annual value than an arbitration award (say 3yrs/24mil or 8/yr vs. the 9mil he might get in arb) it would be silly for him to turn down multiple years at slightly less for 1yr at slightly more. He is still a pitcher and as such he is always 1 pitch from his career ending. Furthermore, the Cards should be thrilled to have him back for only a 1yr commitment at 9mil. He would be pitching for a contract…again and even if he reverts to 2008 he still adds value in bulk innings. I think this falls in the no-brainer category as well.
4) Glaus - No chance you can offer him arb. He would accept in less than a second. Since the max paycut he could take would be 20% he would be guaranteed just under 10mil coming off major shoulder surgery and a back injury. The Cards would be insane to offer him arb.
hey this might be a stupid ques but say if holiday excepts the arbitration, could we sign him to a long term deal or do we have to play out that 1 year?
Not a stu ques at all, Ramsfan. If Holliday accepts an offer of arbitration he is instantly added to the 40-man roster and cemented to a one-year contract. But because he is then under Cardinals control, so to speak, they can continue negotiating a multi-year deal with Holliday. It would be similar to, say, Pujols a few years ago as the pressure of arbitration encouraged the negotiation of a multi-year deal to avoid the arbitration hearing …
dg
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I’m still hoping the owners will offer to arbitrate my ticket price. If not, it looks like I’ll have to sign on with Pittsburgh.
Cards need to sign DeRosa asap, period.
This is kinda off topic, but have the Cards shown any interest in Polanco? Him and Pujols are very close and would give Albert one more reason to stay in St. Louis. Might not be a big reason to re-sign, but even the little things can help. If Derosa moves on, I think it would be smart to go after Polanco, even though he is a type A free agent.
I’m wary of Pineiro because of his Jeckyll and Hyde performance the past two seasons. Other GMs may feel the same, so there is a chance that he could accept arbitration and resign with the Cardinals. If the Cardinals are comfortable with him in terms of their expectations, then by all means. But there’s a risk that Pinerio could regress and not live up to even a arbitration-awarded contract, and I’d rather solidify the middle of the rotation, especially with the 5th spot being used to try out prospects like Garcia and Boggs.
I’m sorry Jeff but your idea is Horrible because of the fact you just gave. Polanco is older and a Type A free Agent. So the Cards would have to get rid of their #1 pick to sign him…. That is reason enough not to sign Polanco and on top of that he is an older player now. So you are willing to jeopardize the future of this franchise for 34 year old guy who may play on the team for 1-2 years to try and resign Pujols? That is STUPID!Albert has continuously said he wants to play for a contender thus we need our draft picks to continuously build around him. So if it takes Polanco here to resign Pujols than my impression of Albert is really far off. Albert would/wouldn’t resign here whether or not Polanco is here because that is not what would be needed to keep Albert here. Nice try but better luck next time. On another note, I agree with everything stldrakelaw said we need to do. I think your exactly right and I believe the Cards will do it.
I couldn’t comment on this topic any better than stldrakelaw and ram-o-rama already did.
OK, the 28 people who voted for arbitration for Glaus, and the 9 who voted against arbitration for Holliday haven’t explained their counter-intuitive reasoning - what’s your counter-intuitive case, DG?