Arbitration Figures Exchanged

Tuesday, January 16 2007 @ 08:30 PM EST

Contributed by: Pistol

The Jays have not yet come to agreement with their three remaining arbitration eligible players: Alex Rios, Reed Johnson and Scott Downs. Today they exchanged offers.

Rios: Asking $3.1 million. Offered $2.0 million.
Johnson: Asking $3.6 million. Offered $2.5 million
Downs: Asking $1.2 million. Offered $925,000.

Downs seems the likeliest to avoid arbitration as the difference is the smallest of the three (both in dollars and %). Rios is asking for more than 50% more than the Jays are offering. Johnson is in a similar spot asking for nearly that much more than the Jays are offering.

As mentioned before, now is probably the best time to lock up Rios. I'd be more than happy to see Rios sign a 5 year deal.

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Here's an article that's a couple years old on the arbitration process. For salaries:

"The arbitration panel shall, except for a Player with five or more years of Major League service, give particular attention, for comparative salary purposes, to the contracts of Players with Major League service not exceeding one annual service group above the Player's annual service group."

In other words, Super Twos can be compared to Super Twos and three-year players, but not four-year players. Threes can be compared to other threes and fours, but not fives. The exception is that fives can compare themselves to anyone.

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