Dilemma for Major League clubs as talented players approach arbitration years - Part 1
It is easy to ignore some of the issues that do not look big on the surface but that consume significant amount of time of top officials of Major League clubs.
The gradual arrival of the arbitration years of a player is one such. Any member of the team who was doing a decent job in his three years since making Major League debut puts a troubling question before the club management.
That is whether they should offer him a contract extension prior to his arbitration years or they should wait before locking him down for a prolonged duration.
By clinching the deal beforehand, they can ascertain that the player will not force them for paying excessive money by enforcing arbitration.
What happens is that if a player under arbitration disagrees with the clauses of the contract that he is being granted by the club, he can fight his case if he feels that he is more valuable.
He has the right to take the matter to concerned authorities and ask them to evaluate his actual price. Their decision will be binding on both parties.
Sometimes the price evaluated by the jury is far more than what the club was willing to pay. Resultantly, the teams surrender to the demands of the player.
On the other hand, if a club clinches an agreement which buys out arbitration years of a player, it faces the risk of overpaying him after the passage of some years.
For example, any member of the team who has earned a contract extension from the club because of the fear of his arbitration becomes a burden on the team if he does not live up to expectations.
The organisation which had agreed for four to five years in the contract suffers immensely by having to make an unnecessary cash outflow.
However, it is not always the case. Such moves have worked well for clubs on several occasions, ensuring hefty dividends.
Before arbitration, the teams can get a player to accept an amount of money that he will more probably reject after one or two years. As a result, they save a huge amount of money when that player shines and reaches heights of success down the line, producing
more than what he was gaining from the club.
Miami Marlins confront a similar sort of predicament at the moment. Their outfielder Giancarlo Stanton is not far from going through arbitration. Up until now, his performance is amazing. He spearheads the slugging department.
Defensively, he is equally impressive. In short, he is such an important component of the team right now that the Marlins, more likely, will not let him use the arbitration. Instead, they will sign him prior to reaching there.
However, there is another problem for them. Giancarlo can try to temporise the proceedings until he becomes arbitration eligible. Alternatively, he can compel the club to prepare an expensive package for him in line with his current sublime form.
In either case, the dilemma is unpleasant for Miami because they cannot afford to sign a blockbuster deal with him before he has fully proven his credentials as Type A category free agent calibre player, for example.
Their desire to retain Giancarlo coupled with financial limitations can bring them on the brink of doing something silly. After being unable to reach a logical conclusion in this regard, they can panic and take such a decision which proves counter-productive
later in the years.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Continued in Part 2
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