The Rays avoided arbitration, and agreed to one year contracts, with pitchers Burke Badenhop, JP Howell, David Price, and centerfielder BJ Upton.
Badenhop, who went 2-3 with a 4.10 ERA in 63.2-IP with 29-ER in 50 relief appearances with the Marlins, will earn $1.075 MM in the upcoming season. Howell went 2-3 with a 6.16 ERA in 30.2-IP with 21-ER in 46 appearances in 2011, and will earn $1.35 MM in 2012.
Surprisingly enough, both Price and Upton were projected to make more money through arbitration. Price, who had a projected arbitration salary of $7.8 MM, will earn $4.35 MM in 2012, and Upton will make $7 MM in the last year of his contract with the Rays. Bossman Jr. was projected to make $7.6 MM. Why they are making less than they were projected to make is unknown. It could be argued that Upton’s .243 BA and 161 strike-outs may have contributed somewhat. It should be noted that Price’s deal matches the highest one year deal for a player in his first year of arbitration.
Jeff Niemann, 28, went 11-7 with a 4.06 ERA in 2011, and is the lone Ray to go into arbitration. Niemann earned $903 K last year, and was projected to make $3.1 MM in 2012. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweeted that the Rays were comfortable with (offering Niemann) $2.75 MM, but Niemann was looking, and filed, for $3.2 MM. The Rays are 4-0 in arbitration proceedings under Friedman. Let the rumors fly. Did the Rays not want to commit to a player they have the intention of trading? Did the Rays not want to give $500 K plus, over their offer, to someone who has been injured multiple times over the course of the last two seasons? Hmm…
Now on to today’s other big story, “The Big Meeting”. No official word of what was discussed between Mayor Foster and the Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg has been released. It is known that today’s meeting took place at the Trop, lasted a couple of hours, and was over around 4:15. It has been speculated that the dynamic duo didn’t discuss any of the larger problems at hand, rather Foster mentioned ways that the city could help market the Rays better. In any case, after six months without any communication between the two, and a whole year since the last time both Foster and Sternberg formally sat down with one-another, today’s meeting was a positive step forward.
10:15 Update: Times staff writers, Stephen Nohlgren and Michael van Sickler, just posted this piece about “The Big Meeting” on the TBT website.