For all the talk about how the bad economy would keep teams from offering salary arbitration to their free agents, there were actually more offers made this year than there were last year.
|
|
| Ben Sheets' injuries are enough to scare teams away. (Getty Images) |
So maybe the most interesting question for this week is whether any of those 24 free agents who received arbitration offers Monday night (up from 17 in 2007) will accept those offers by the next deadline -- midnight Sunday.
Two big-name guesses: Ben Sheets and Jason Varitek.
To be sure, both would prefer to sign multiyear contracts, rather than accept the one-year deal that comes with arbitration. To be sure, both had reason to expect those big multiyear deals would be out there for them.
But neither Sheets nor Varitek enters the market at top value, Sheets because of health concerns and Varitek because he's coming off the worst statistical year of his 11-year Red Sox career.
"I can't see anyone offering (Varitek) $11 million a year," one American League executive said.
"I don't think anyone gives him three or four years at megabucks," said one from the National League.
Varitek made $10 million in 2008, and he'd likely get that or a little bit more through the arbitration process.
The Red Sox would like to keep Varitek (but on a short-term deal), and Varitek has said many times that he would like to stay. So is it crazy to think that he would accept arbitration, hoping that he has a much better year in 2009 and hits the market in a better economy a year from now?
There are a couple of reasons why he might not accept. For one thing, Varitek turns 37 next April, and by next winter he could become an even harder sell for a multiyear deal. For another, the Red Sox have no one available to replace him right now, and he could turn that leverage into a deal better than the one he'd get through arbitration.
Sheets' situation seems more tempting. He's 30 years old, and while his 2008 numbers weren't bad (13-9, 3.09), he had an elbow problem that kept him out of the stretch run and the playoffs. Sheets has been hurt enough in the past that even though this injury isn't considered serious, it's enough to scare many teams away.
Sheets made $11 million in 2008, at the end of a four-year, $38.5 million contract, and he would certainly get more than that in arbitration. If he came back and made it through 2009 healthy, he could put himself in even better position to cash in next winter.
