The Arbitration Process in Major League Baseball

In the month of February, all baseball fans hear about an event that takes place that goes unquestioned, yet has significance to a player's amount of money they will be making in the coming season. This way to decide contracts, arbitration, is never explained on the major networks that cover sports. To be the medium between the major networks and the people, give this a five minute read to discover the simplicity of arbitration.

Arbitration happens when a player, with at least 3 years but less than 6 years of service in Major League Baseball. The two sides disagree on the given figure of money that will be made by the player for next year. To eliminate this discrepancy, the team (typically represented by either a club executive or an attorney) and the player (typically represented by his agent) sell their case to a panel of 3 professional arbitrators. The two sides present their case for an hour each to the panel arguing for the amount of money each side believes the player should earn. Afterward, each side will offer rebuttal to the opposing arguments for 30 minutes. Once this is settled, the panel will meet and decide the ruling. The ruling is a one year contract and is either the team's number of the player's number that is chosen. The panel doesn't average the numbers, but instead makes the choice of only one of the two figures that were given.

Players have taken advantage to this form of negotiation. Of the 110 players that filed for salary arbitration last season, their average salary increased 120 percent from $1.38 million to $3.04 million. Tim Lincecum is the perfect example. He went through arbitration with his team, the San Fransisco Giants in the past winter. He had an unheard of 1,769% increase in his salary from last year. In 2009, he made $650,000, and with his two year deal $11.5 million.

Personally, I think arbitration is an issue that escapes the notice of many, but can impact a player's performance. Essentially, the player and the team are in disagreement, however the time of the year forces the two parties to come together and resolve the dissagreement. In the same month that players report to spring training, the two sides are going to the alternative to a lawsuit. Although players and managers will negate the complexity of the disagreement, such as Ryan Theriot, Cubs shortstop, I believe there is lots of resentment that goes unseen. If you are telling me players and managers alike can look back after their encounter on arguing over a money value and say everything is better than before, I would consider that ludicrous. Nobody can let such hard feelings go as quickly and painlessly as these MLB players would let on to the media. I believe deep down inside, the players are still bitter over the need to put effort into an issue that should be solved between a player and the team. In other words, no suits necessary.