The Wonderful World of Salary Arbitration, Part Two

Hopefully your headache from reading the first part of this series has worn off by now and we can look at what salary arbitration offers from around the league mean for the Rangers as they go forward in free agency.

First let me say that the team that just went to the World Series has been built on a strong foundation in the minor leagues, including in the draft.  Going forward, the Rangers will want to keep building on that foundation and will not give away draft picks for just any run of the mill free agents with Type A price tags.

There are not many free agents that are attached to the risk of losing a draft pick in order to sign them, and that list shrunk even more last night.  Before last night's deadline, if a player was classified as a Type A, the signing team had to give up draft compensation, no matter if the former team planned to offer salary arbitration to that player or not.  But now, some Type A players were not offered arbitration, which means there is no compensation deterrent to keep other clubs from going after those players.

Here's a list of Type A players that were offered salary arbitration before last night's deadline, minus Lee and Francisco:

• Grant Balfour, RHP - Rays
• Adrian Beltre, 3B - Red Sox
• Carl Crawford, OF - Rays
• Jorge de la Rosa, LHP - Rockies
• Scott Downs, LHP - Blue Jays
• Adam Dunn, OF/1B - Nationals
• Jason Frasor, RHP - Blue Jays
• Paul Konerko, 1B - White Sox
• Carl Pavano, RHP - Twins
• Rafael Soriano, RHP - Rays
• Jayson Werth, OF - Phillies

If the Rangers sign any of those players, they must give up their first round pick to do so.  If they sign more than one from that list, they must give up multiple picks.  To be honest, I don't see the Rangers signing any of those guys.  It would be great to add Carl Crawford or even Rafael Soriano, but I don't see that happening.  The rest of the list don't really seem to fit what the Rangers need at the cost of a first round draft choice.  Victor Martinez would have been worth it, but he would have filled a vacancy, while the guys on this list do not really do that.

If the Rangers sign any other free agents, including other Type A or Type B free agents, they do not have to give up draft pick compensation.  It's as plain as that.  That's not so hard, huh?

Here's what's interesting, though.  The following players were Type A's that did not get arbitration offers.  The Rangers could have greater interest in some of these guys now that they know the compensation risk is gone, whereas they might have been cautious in considering them before last night.

• Matt Guerrier, RHP - Twins
• Derek Jeter, SS - Yankees
• Derrek Lee, 1B - Braves
• Magglio Ordonez, OF/DH - Tigers
• Andy Pettitte, LHP - Yankees
• AJ Pierzynski, C - White Sox
• Manny Ramirez, OF - White Sox
• Arthur Rhodes, LHP - Reds
• Mariano Rivera, RHP - Yankees
• Miguel Tejada, SS/3B - Padres
• Dan Wheeler, RHP - Rays

First of all, just ignore the Yankees on this list.  They will all re-sign with New York, or retire in Pettitte's case, and the arbitration decision is just a chapter in the Yankee off-season soap opera.

Beyond those names, you could make a case that the rest of the players could interest the Rangers to a certain degree.  If the Rangers don't bring back Vlad Guerrero, then Ordonez, Ramirez, Tejada, and Lee represent good right handed batting veteran options, though I'm still not big on the idea of bringing in Manny.  I'm just about as put off when it comes to Pierzynski as I am with Manny, but if the Rangers decide they want him, at least they don't have to give up the pick now.  And all of the relief pitchers on the list are veterans who could help strenghten our rather young bullpen.

Like I said at the beginning of the first post, this just sets up the framework for the rest of the off-season, now that we know what the stakes are for signing each free agent.  The other big event coming in the next few weeks is the non-tender deadline, when teams will decide to cut loose some of their players thus throwing more options into the free agency pool.  But that's a post to itself when the time comes.  I think all of our brains need a break after taking this look at the arbitration decisions.