The Royals v. Brady Singer
There’s no doubt that contract negotiations can be a messy business, particularly in professional sports. The Royals this week “won” their salary arbitration hearing with Brady Singer. In the process they saved $350K and damaged their relationship with the team’s best pitcher.
How did we get here?
To answer that, you need a little background on how the salary arbitration process works in major league baseball. When a player starts his major league career, he is under “team control” for 6 years, only becoming eligible for free agency in year 7. Essentially the club can dictate contract terms to the player.
When a player has accrued 3 years of major league service time, he is eligible for salary arbitration. Some players with 2+ years of service time, including Brady Singer, also qualify for arbitration and are referred to as “Super 2’s”.
Arbitration-eligible players and their clubs have until a certain deadline to agree on a contract. This year that deadline was January 13th. If they are unable to come to agreement, then the process proceeds to arbitration. Each side comes with a salary number for the season, and an independent arbiter picks one or the other. There is no “meeting in the middle”, somebody wins and somebody loses.
This year Brady Singer requested a $3.325M salary, the Royals countered with an offer of $2.95M. The arbiter sided with the Royals.
So what’s the big deal?
The problem with the arbitration process is it ALWAYS damages the player-team relationship. Think about….during the arbitration hearing the player and the team sit in the same room and tell the arbiter why their number is appropriate. Brady Singer knows damn good and well he is the best pitcher on the Royals staff, and he had to listen to management make the case that he isn’t “worth” his asking price.
Some players might be able to just blow that off, but my gut tells me Singer isn’t one of those guys. Neither is Corbin Burnes of the Brewers. Burnes was Milwaukee’s best starting pitcher last year, going 12-8 with a 2.94 ERA and 0.97 WHIP. Burnes has a Cy Young award on his mantel, and is one of the best pitchers in baseball. Like Singer, he also lost his arbitration case this week, and had this to say afterwards to Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel…
Brady Singer hasn’t been quite that straightforward about the damage done to his relationship with the Royals, but he did say this according to Anne Rogers’s twitter feed
Let’s review what has happened here…the Royals have damaged the relationship with their best pitcher over $375K.
$375K!
John Sherman spends more than that on mustache wax during the season. Singer’s request was reasonable, and the team would have been far better served to just give the man what he asked for.
In an off-season full of questionable moves, taking Brady Singer to arbitration stands out like a sore thumb. The Royals will tell you they “won” the case, but I’m not so sure.