As of this evening, Mike Rizzo has settled up with all of his arbitration eligible players. He tied up Michael A. Taylor yesterday, and today negotiated deals with Roenis Elias and Joe Ross before today’s deadline which avoided arbitration — and with a little drama the team announced a deal about an hour ago with Trea Turner at $7.45 million.
In fact if you follow MLB Trade Rumor’s projections for arbitration eligible players, Rizzo paid-out dollars to those players within $100,000 of the projections, and that makes the 2020 CBT cash projections virtually unchanged — and that is a good thing.
Turner’s payday almost certainly guarantees him an 8-figure deal in his third year of arbitration next year. He earned the biggest raise of any of the Nats arb players, as expected. As of now, Turner is set to be a free agent following the 2022 season unless the Nats tie him up sooner than later.
Rizzo made fair deals as usual, and you don’t want to head to an arbitration hearing where you have to beat down your own player before a panel of three who decides to pick a side after dollars are submitted from the team side and the player side. Last year, Rizzo was 2-for-2 by defeating both Michael A. Taylor and Kyle Barraclough in their arbitration hearings.
Fortunately, no arbitration hearings are necessary for the reigning World Series champs this year. Taylor got a slight raise from last year to $3.325 million plus a small incentive if he reaches 300 plate appearances, and Elias agreed to a $1.975 million deal which beat out the $1.9 million estimate and Joe Ross got $1.5 million.
Keep in mind that Wilmer Difo and Hunter Strickland were both arbitration eligible after the season and agreed to deals before the non-tender deadline in November.
| Pitchers | B/T | Contract Status | CBT Salary | |
| 1 | Anibal Sanchez | R/R | Has a $2 million incentive pkg | $ 9,500,000 |
| 2 | Austin Voth | R/R | Minimum | $ 575,000 |
| 3 | Daniel Hudson | Has $1 million in incentives | $ 5,500,000 | |
| 4 | Hunter Strickland | R/R | Arb 3 | $ 1,600,000 |
| 5 | Joe Ross | R/R | Arb 2 | $ 1,500,000 |
| 6 | Max Scherzer | R/R | $ 28,689,376 | |
| 7 | Patrick Corbin | L/L | $ 23,333,333 | |
| 8 | Roenis Elias | L/L | Arb 2 | $ 1,975,000 |
| 9 | Sean Doolittle | L/L | $ 6,500,000 | |
| 10 | Stephen Strasburg | Small AAV pickup from Def int | $ 34,000,000 | |
| 11 | Tanner Rainey | R/R | Minimum | $ 585,000 |
| 12 | Wander Suero | R/R | Minimum | $ 585,000 |
| 13 | Will Harris | R/R | $ 8,000,000 | |
| Kyle Finnegan | R/R | Options | ||
| Erick Fedde | R/R | 1 option remaining | $ 575,000 | |
| Catchers | B/T | Contract Status | CBT Salary | |
| Raudy Read | R/R | |||
| Tres Barrera | R/R | |||
| 14 | Kurt Suzuki | R/R | $ 5,000,000 | |
| 15 | Yan Gomes | R/R | $ 5,000,000 | |
| Infielders | B/T | Contract Status | CBT Salary | |
| Adrian Sanchez | R/R | |||
| 16 | Eric Thames | Inc $1 million buyout | $ 4,000,000 | |
| 17 | Asdurbal Cabrera | S/R | Has $500,000 incentives pkg | $ 2,500,000 |
| 3rd baseman | L/R | $ – | ||
| 18 | Howie Kendrick | R/R | 1B/2B | $ 6,250,000 |
| Jake Noll | R/R | |||
| 19 | Trea Turner | R/R | Arb 2 | $ 7,450,000 |
| 20 | Starlin Castro | R/R | $ 6,000,000 | |
| Carter Kieboom | R/R | options | $ 575,000 | |
| 21 | Wilmer Difo | S/R | Arb 1 | $ 1,000,000 |
| Outfielders | B/T | Contract Status | CBT Salary | |
| 22 | Adam Eaton | L/L | $ 9,500,000 | |
| 23 | Andrew Stevenson | L/L | Minimum | $ 580,000 |
| 24 | Juan Soto | L/L | Minimum | $ 650,000 |
| 25 | Michael A. Taylor | R/R | PA incentive for 2020 | $ 3,325,000 |
| 26 | Victor Robles | R/R | Minimum | $ 600,000 |
| 40 man cost est. | $ 2,250,000 | |||
| Player benefits est. | $ 15,000,000 | |||
| Bonuses and incentives est. | $ 4,525,000 | |||
| Total | $ 197,122,709 | |||
| CBT 2020 Limit | $ 208,000,000 |
On an aside, Daniel Hudson’s deal still has not been announced as official, and Ryan Zimmerman as of now enters Winterfest weekend without a contract from the Nationals. The team is almost exactly $11 million under the CBT cap and could certainly make additional moves.
Now back to Winterfest weekend.
