Arbitration

Over at mlbtraderumors.com they did a nice job of sorting out the arbitration cases today. The most interesting part is the players who were surprisingly not offered arbitration. It seemed like a no brainer all offseason that the Yankees would offer Abreu arbitration and that if he didn't accept oh well they Yankees would be "stuck" with him. But even the Yankees didn't want to give Abreu all those millions for one year. The Yankees are fully satisfied with Nady in RF all year and using that money for pitching. If there was no financial crisis would the Yankees just say screw it and offer arbitration Abreu just in case or for a possible draft pick? I couldn't tell you but they are obviously being more fiscally responsible and putting their money where it matters in the rotation. The Diamondbacks didn't do well last year with Dunn it's probably not worth getting stuck with Dunn for that kind of price tag. Just as a little side note, the Diamondbacks also have to be killing themselves for resigning Byrnes after a career year, having to pay him $11m in '09 and '10. As for the Phillies, they won the World Series so you'd expect them to try to keep the team together, but I guess they have other plans in mind with Burrell.

I wonder if the guys like Abreu, Burrell, and Dunn lose or gain an edge in free agency negotiations. Without being offered arbitration the other teams don't have to lose draft picks if they look to sign them, but with arbitration the players could use that year as leverage to get more money. It should be interesting how this plays out. Also, besides a few Abreu to the Cubs rumors, I haven't heard anything of substance about Abreu, Dunn or Burrell. I'm going to assume they are backup plans for a lot of teams looking to pursue Teixeira and/or Manny. If you have to pay Manny $25m a year I would think Burrell or Dunn would seem like bargains. Are these guys waiting for Teix and Manny to set the line, or are they just not getting any offers? These are OBP machines that are no worse in LF than Manny and can play 1b, you could do much worse, and if you're paying Manny that money when he's 41, well I think you can see what I'm getting at.