Four Brewers remain in arbitration
Major-league players in their first year of arbitration eligibility generally receive significant raises in pay, and the Milwaukee Brewers have four players in that category as the deadline approaches for exchanging salary figures.
All arbitration-eligible players still unsigned by midday Friday will exchange figures with their clubs. Closer Corey Knebel, starting pitcher Jimmy Nelson, second baseman Jonathan Villar and utility player Hernán Pérez are the remaining Brewers in arbitration of an original group of nine players.
Knebel is a “Super 2” player, meaning he is in the top 22% of big-leaguers with between two and three years of service time, making him eligible for arbitration a year earlier than the others. Each of the Brewers was in the minimum salary range (just over $500,000) last season but all are about to receive big bumps in pay, which could total approxi-
mately $14 million.
Knebel, 26, emerged as one of the top closers in the majors last season, compiling 39 saves with 126 strikeouts in 76 innings while holding opponents to a .180 batting average. Accordingly, he is projected to receive a salary around $4 million.
Nelson, 28, is coming off major shoulder surgery and is expected to miss much of the first half of the 2018 season, but that is not expected to significantly change his arbitration standing. After going 12-6 with a 3.49 ERA in 29 starts, he is expected to go beyond $4 million in salary.
Villar is an interesting case because he turned down a $23 million contract extension last spring to gamble on his last year of pre-arbitration play. He then went out and played his way out of the regular lineup at second base with a poor showing, batting .241 with 11 homers, 40 RBI, 23 stolen bases and a .665 OPS.
Pérez has evolved into the Brewers’ top utility player, seeing action at seven positions last season. He batted .259 with 14 homers, 51 RBI and a .704 OPS in 136 games.
Teams and players are allowed to continue negotiating after exchanging figures but the Brewers, as with many teams, usually treat the deadline as a hard one. That means they would go to hearings with those players in February before an arbitration panel that is required to pick one figure or the other.
The Brewers trimmed their original group of nine arbitration-eligible players by releasing reliever Carlos Torres, non-tendering reliever Jared Hughes, signing starter Chase Anderson to a two-year extension and reaching non-guaranteed deals with reliever Jeremy Jeffress and catcher Stephen Vogt.
Including Vogt and Jeffress, the Brewers have nine players signed for 2018 at just over $43 million, led by Ryan Braun’s $15 million salary (he has an additional $4 million deferred).