There were no major free agent deals signed and we didn’t have a steroid confession from one of the biggest stars of the last 20 years, so compared to the previous week the last seven days might seem uneventful.

However, that isn’t the impression you would get if you looked at the list of transactions that have taken place.  The last week or so has been dominated by contract negotiations between teams and players who are eligible for arbitration.  128 players filed for arbitration on Friday 15th and arbitration figures had to be filed on Tuesday 19th.  

‘Arbitration’ is the process by which players who have between three to six years of Major League service time negotiate their salary for the upcoming season with their current club.  They are joined by some of the players who have between two and three years of service time (the top 17 per cent in terms of the amount of service time accumulated) and also any players who would have been free agents had they not accepted an offer of arbitration from their previous team (there were just two this year: Carl Pavano and Rafael Betancourt).  Continue reading →