The Arbitration Battle: Advatange – Team 

Posted on Feb 20 in Arbitrationby Darren HeitnerPrint Share

100 baseball players entered the arbitration season, and the average salary obtained after the hearings (or after a deal was brokered before a hearing took place) is $2.5 million. While that number may not seem too shabby, the trend since 2004 is that arbitration verdicts (or prior settlements) are decreasing in monitary value yearly. In 2004, $3.26 million was the average and in 2005, the average was $2.8 million.

Average Salary after Arbitration
2006 – $2.5 million
2005 – $2.8 million
2004 – $3.26 million

Even though the numbers are decreasing, players who enter arbitration are still gaining a 108% average increase in salary after the verdict (or settlement). This is also a significant drop in percentage when compared to 2005 and 2004.

Percent Increase in Salary after Arbitration
2006 – 108%
2005 – 123%
2004 – 126%

In 2006, only 6 players actually followed through with the arbitration process instead of brokering a deal with the Major League team before the suit took place. Of those 6 players, only 2 of them (Kyle Lohse and Emil Brown) won the Final Offer Arbitration hearing.

Less and less players are going to arbitration, which may be a sign that as an Agent, you may want to do everything in your power to create the best deal for your client before the hearing, if at all possible.

As a USAToday article points out, owners have won 269 of the 469 arbitration cases since 1974.

[tags]arbitration, mlb, lohse, brown, salary[/tags]

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• I Want to be a Sports Agent » Blog Archive » Tis’ Arbitration Season says:

  February 18, 2007 at 5:23 pm

  [...] In a post made almost exactly a year ago I looked specifically at arbitration in Major League Baseball [The Arbitration Battle: Advantage - Team]. The observations that I made last year seem to be on course again this year. When an arbitration case is actually heard, owners have an advantage (they are 4-1 so far this year). There are also a lot of negative consequences that may come along with following through with a hearing instead of settling before-hand [Arbitration…good or bad?]. [...]

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