Baltimore Orioles: The Fog of Arbitration Clears
The Baltimore Orioles are down to only two players remaining to resolve arbitration: Zach Britton and Brian Matusz, having settled with 10 others.
The Orioles have had an unusual number of these cases over the past two seasons as longer-termed players grow into veteran status with the team. But the fog has cleared a good deal as to how much this list of players will cost.
Every year the folks at MLBTradeRumors.com produce a list of predicted salaries for arbitration-eligible players. The projections have gained such a great reputation that they are actually used within the negotiation processes themselves.
And once again, MLBTR has so far been remarkably (to use baseball allusions) not only in the ballpark on their O’s projections, but they have squared-up quite a few and hit the ball on the fat part of the bat.
Here is a list of those settled so far (giving the numbers in millions of dollars or fractions thereof) … listing the 2015 salary, the MLBTR projection, and the amount of contract resolution for 2016.
| Name | 2015 | MLBTR | 2016 |
| Mark Trumbo | 6.5 | 9.1 | 9.15 |
| Chris Tillman | 4.315 | 6.2 | 6.225 |
| Miguel Gonzalez | 3.275 | 4.9 | 5.1 |
| Manny Machado | .548 | 5.9 | 5.0 + incentives |
| Vance Worley | 2.45 | 2.7 | 2.6 |
| Ryan Flaherty | 1.075 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Nolan Reimold | minimum | 0.9 | 1.3 |
| Brad Brach | .523 | 1.1 | 1.25 |
| Paul Janish | minimum | 0.6 | Minors contract |
| David Lough | .525 | 0.8 | Gone |
Going into this process, the predicted total was for $34.9 million (included Vance Worley, but not Mark Trumbo). Adding Trumbo to the list and subtracting Janish and Lough, the predicted number would be $42.8 million.
At this point, the agreed-upon total is $32.125 million.
Matusz made $3.2 million in 2015 and has submitted for $4.4 million with the Orioles at $3.4 million. Let’s guess they meet at $3.8 million — and Matusz should hope to settle, as his number is simply too high to hope to win.
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Britton also made $3.2 million in 2015. He stands at $7.9 with the O’s at $5.6. MLBTR predicted $6.9 million, so let’s go with that number.
Totaling these two relievers with the others, it would look like the Orioles are going to be paying out just under $43 million for 10 players … just what was projected.
Zach Britton was the last of the Orioles to agree to a contract in 2015, doing so on February 4th. He has some fellow by the last name of Boras as an agent, maybe you’ve heard of him?
Actually, the final player to agree a year ago was Alejandro De Aza, and technically, it wasn’t an agreement. He lost his hearing to the Orioles, and rightly so.