Today is the deadline for teams and players to submit arbitration figures. We’ll be hearing news on the contract status of eight players on the Pirates’ roster who are arbitration eligible. Here are those arbitration eligible players and their estimated 2020 salaries through arbitration:
Josh Bell – $5,900,000
Joe Musgrove – $3,400,000
Keone Kela – $3,400,000
Adam Frazier – $3,200,000
Trevor Williams – $3,000,000
Jameson Taillon – $2,300,000
Chad Kuhl – $1,400,000
Michael Feliz – $1,200,000
The Pirates can work out deals with any of these guys before today’s deadline for the 2020 season, or beyond.
If no deal is reached, both sides submit their salary figure for the player for 2020. They would have a hearing in February to argue why their submitted figure is correct. An arbitration panel will choose between the figure the team submitted and the figure the player submitted, at which point the player receives that salary for 2020.
Teams can reach deals with players up to the hearing, even if no deal is reached today. Under Neal Huntington, the Pirates were a “file and trial” team. That meant if they filed today under Huntington, there would be no more discussions about the 2020 salary, and the Pirates would wait for the arbitration hearing.
We don’t know if Ben Cherington will operate in the same manner. The Blue Jays were also a file and trial team, so Cherington could bring that approach to the Pirates. This doesn’t make a huge difference for anyone following along. It just allows us to know what to expect between today and the arbitration hearings.
We’ll update this post with news from today’s figure exchanges.
UPDATE: Jameson Taillon will receive $2.25M to rehab from his second Tommy John surgery this year. Fun fact: MLB players on rehab still get their MLB per diem when the big league club goes on the road, even if they’re sitting at Pirate City.
UPDATE #2: Chad Kuhl gets $840,000 according to Adam Berry. That’s quite a large difference from his projected salary of $1.4 M.
UPDATE #3: Josh Bell receives $4.8 M, another one well off the estimated price. Five more to go.
UPDATE #4: Michael Feliz gets $1.1 M, slightly under his projected number. Halfway home, waiting on Kela, Frazier, Musgrove and Williams.
UPDATE #5: A familiar theme, as Trevor Williams agrees to a slightly under projection figure of $2.825M. Three more to go. The deadline has passed, but it takes time for all of the news to come in.
UPDATE #6: Joe Musgrove reportedly came to agreement for $2.8M. That’s $600K below the projection.
UPDATE #7: Keona Kela is the first to get more than the projections. He will receive $3,725,00 in 2020. Adam Frazier is the only one we are waiting on now.
UPDATE #8: Frazier agreed, but no total has been announced yet. We will update this article if it’s announced. The important news here is that no one will go to an arbitration trial.
We have agreed to terms with the following eight players on contracts for the 2020 season, thus avoiding salary arbitration:
Josh Bell
Michael Feliz
Adam Frazier
Keone Kela
Chad Kuhl
Joe Musgrove
Jameson Taillon
Trevor Williams— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) January 10, 2020
FINAL UPDATE: Frazier received $2.8 M, which is $400,000 under the estimate. I also updated the Kela figure, which was initially reported wrong. Seven of the players were under the MLBTR estimate. Kela was the only one over.
