The Phillies have agreed to contracts with all of their arbitration eligible players. Today was the deadline to exchange figures, but no one ended up doing so and therefore there will be no arbitration hearings. Below are the salaries agreed to by the eligible players along with the Spotrac estimates in parentheses…
- Jesus Luzardo – $11m ($12m projected)
- Bryson Stott – $5.9m ($5.5m projected)
- Alec Bohm – $10.3m
- Tanner Banks – $1.2m ($1.3m projected)
- Jhoan Duran – $7.5m ($8m projected)
- Edmundo Sosa – $4.4m ($7.5m projected by Spotrac but $3.9m by MLBT. I had him at $5m to split the difference)
- Brandon Marsh – $5.2m ($5.5m projected)
All contracts become guaranteed at signing.
On my personal calculations, we saved $2.1m. That’s pretty good considering every dollar counts with this team and their battle with the luxury tax. With all the arb now behind us, the payroll for luxury tax purposes is $297m right now. Reports are that $315m is the highest they will go.
While this is good in terms of relations with players and certainty when it comes to budget, I am personally disappointed. Why? Because it means we don’t get talk about the process in depth. Because I am a blowhard, here is what you don’t need to know about the process.
Once the team agrees to tender a contract, the player and the team exchange numbers that they believe the player is worth that season. These are based on performance and what previous comparable players have made. Often times, the player and the team agree to split the difference and sign a contract in the middle.
If they do not agree, their numbers are submitted to an arbitrator who then listens to the teams formally argue their side. The arbitrator then decides which side wins with no in between. The crazy part is that if the player wins, the team can simply cut that player if they don’t like the decision. They would lose the rights to that player, but that’s crazy that they can do this.
I find the whole process fascinating from a personal and financial standpoint. In arguing their side, the team will necessarily point out all the flaws they see in the player. It is impossible not to and still win the hearing. The player gets to hear this from the team that is employing him. It’s like a performance review on steroids. Usually, the amounts in question are only a few hundred thousand dollars. While that’s a lot to most people, it is chump change to the teams. What I can’t get over though is that a lawyer is being paid to prepare for this. At probably $1000 per hour, an attorney will put in a huge amount of time to prepare for this argument and then make it. I may even be light on this, but $100k in attorney fees probably isn’t crazy. Seems silly to me.
Anyway, even though I had planned to have some fun making arguments for why Alec Bohm should lose his hearing, I guess it’s not going to happen this year.
Philly Front Office 
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