As the 6-year free agent arbitration deadline came and went at midnight last night, the Phillies officially chose not to make offers to four free agents, including two Type A free agents, Pat Burrell and Jamie Moyer (Rudy Seanez and Tom Gordon were the others).
Ok, I don’t get this at all, unless it is not-so-subtle penny-pinching. The downside to offering arbitration is that if the player chooses to accept, they are signed to a one-year deal, with at least a small raise from their salary last year. The upside is that if these players decline arbitration and sign with other teams, the Phillies will get two draft picks (the team’s first pick after the top 15 and a sandwich pick in between the 1st and 2nd rounds).
So, the upside is unquestionably good, especially these days when championship teams are built through the draft. So, let’s look at the downside:
- Pat Burrell – obviously, the Phillies do not want to give him a raise from his $14 million salary of a year ago, but nor does anyone else. But, all we have heard from the Burrell camp is that they are expecting a long-term deal (probably from an AL club), so why would they even accept this one-year of arbitration anyway. And, is it so bad to have him for one more year, when the defending champs are talking about replacing him with probable downgrades, in the likes of Juan Rivera (whom I actually kind of like) or Rocco Baldelli? Yes, I can see the downside of Burrell, but I believe that the upside outweighs it.
- Jamie Moyer – I do not see the downside at all on Jamie Moyer, especially since it has been said time and time again that the number one priority of this offseason is pitching and that the first order of business is to bring back Moyer. The only sticking point in the negotiations is that Moyer wants a multi-year contract and the Phillies have been hesitant because of his age. So, what is the problem with arbitration, people??? I don’t think it’s going to matter because I fully expect Moyer to be back with the Phils in ’09, but what if things fall apart? What if some other team comes in with some ridiculous offer? Why not offer arbitration so there you can receive potential compensation with the only risk being maybe having to give him a raise, but getting the contract length that you want? It just does not make sense to me.
This is worrisome because it’s basically Amaro’s first action as GM and it looks like he botched. One more thing to all of the points you made: If they’re so set on re-signing Moyer, doesn’t this potentially make it harder to do that since other teams won’t have to give up a first-round pick to sign him?
Todd Zolecki has an article about it: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/Phils_do_not_offer_arbitration_to_Moyer_or_Burrell.html
He speculates on the reasoning behind it but doesn’t really come up with any good answers. The best answer I can see: They want to pursue other free agents, and if Burrell and Moyer went to arbitration, they wouldn’t know how much they were paying them until then. The problem with this is: they would at least have a decent idea of what the arbitration settlements would be, so even this “best” answer, isn’t really any good.
I can’t imagine Amaro did this on his own. He was probably instructed (or at least advised) by Montgomery & Co. Also, I’d be shocked if Pat Gillick wasn’t consulted on this as well. That being said, though, I do find it alarming because I think it’s a bad baseball move (hopefully not because of the “good business”)
I wonder if all of this has to do, somehow, with the economy, as other relatively big-name Type A’s were not offered arbitration, like Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn. I wonder if it is telling us just how bad the mid-level FA market is going to be this year, and with that, maybe the Phils/Yanks/Reds are scared of overpaid guys not getting good FA offers and taking arbitration, thus making them even more overpaid. Either way, though, I think that the Phillies made the wrong decisions on both Burrell and Moyer
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