Read: Tonight’s Deadline to offer Arbitration
Tonight, at midnight, is the deadline for teams to offer arbitration to their own free agents, who have until next Sunday, Dec. 7, to accept it.
Teams can continue to negotiate with their own free agents, regardless of whether the player accepts arbitration.
According to Ken Davidoff in Newsday, while the Mets are likely to offer salary arbitration to free-agent Oliver Perez, they will probably not do so with free-agent Pedro Martinez, according to multiple industry sources.
…perez will not accept arbitration for one season, because he can almost certainly sign a multi-year deal, be it with the Mets or with another team…however, by offering it, if he signs with another team, the Mets will receive two compensatory draft picks…
…on the other hand, if the Mets offer arbitration to pedro, he could very well accept it, for lack of a better offer on the open market, which means the Mets have to welcome him back, like it or not…
Davidoff also believes the Mets will not offer arbitration to Moises Alou, Luis Ayala, Damion Easley, Orlando Hernandez, Ramon Martinez, Ricardo Rincon or Matt Wise.
To learn more about the arbitration process, go to MLB.com.
…the buzz in baseball seems to be that most teams are waiting to see how players respond to arbitration offers before jumping in to the free-agent pool…
…once they know who will cost what in terms of compensatory draft picks, the Hot Stove will become a lot hotter…
