Tigers decline to offer five players arbitration

Salary arbitration not expected for Tigers' trio
By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 11/22/10 1:19 PM EST

DETROIT -- Magglio Ordonez's future with the Tigers has the chance to be one of the biggest pieces of suspense in Detroit's offseason. The club's chances of getting a compensatory pick in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft for losing him won't be suspenseful at all.

Nor, for that matter, should be the Tigers' decisions on offering arbitration to any of their other free agents. Tuesday at midnight ET marks the deadline to decide, and Detroit is expected to decline arbitration on all three relevant free agents -- Ordonez, Johnny Damon and Gerald Laird. In the end, the risk of having them accept arbitration and take a good chunk of salary next year outweighs the reward of compensation picks next June.

That includes Ordonez, even though the Tigers hold out hope for bringing him back. They just don't want to bring him back that way, for good financial reasons.

Under the player ranking system developed by Elias Sports Bureau for Major League Baseball, Ordonez qualifies as a Type A free agent. If the Tigers offer him arbitration and Ordonez rejects it to sign with another club, they would receive at least a Draft pick sandwiched after the first round. They could receive the signing team's first-round selection if that pick isn't in the top half of the first round next summer.

Damon and Laird are both Type B free agents. The Tigers would receive a compensation pick sandwiched at the end of the second round if they offer arbitration to either player and they sign elsewhere. They would not get the signing team's selection.

It's a rule that gives teams some return if they have no chance of re-signing a star player. Given the emphasis teams now place on young talent, it's a valuable piece of planning for a lot of clubs. But in the recent market, where some players can earn more money in arbitration than on the open market, it comes with risk.

Once arbitration is offered, a free agent has until Nov. 30 to decide whether to accept it. If he accepts, he guarantees himself a one-year contract, with the salary to be either determined by an arbitrator in February or settled by both clubs beforehand.

It's that last part that weighs as the biggest risk for the Tigers. Though a player can take a pay cut in arbitration, it rarely happens. Even when it does, by rule, that player can't suffer more than a 20 percent pay cut.

Do the math with Ordonez's $15 million salary this year, and the reluctance is evident. The Tigers would like to bring back Ordonez on a one-year deal. Yet even if they knew arbitration would cut Ordonez's salary to the minimum $12 million, which is highly unlikely, it's questionable whether they'd take that in this market, even with the payroll space they gained with expiring contracts this year.

Damon made $8 million in 2010 on his one-year deal, but the Tigers already told him they weren't interested in bringing him back. Laird, who made $3.95 million this past season, and they mutually agreed to part ways at season's end -- Detroit looking for another catcher to complement Alex Avila, Laird looking for more playing time elsewhere.

Jeremy Bonderman, the Tigers' other free agent, did not qualify for compensation under the Elias rankings, so that decision is already made. Detroit hasn't ruled out bringing back the right-hander if he's still on the market later this winter, but with the free-agent pitching market rather shallow, he's expected to find an opportunity with a guaranteed contract somewhere else.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers decline to offer five players arbitration
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com | 11/23/10 10:08 AM EST

The Tigers had until midnight ET on Tuesday to decide whether to offer salary arbitration to their five free agents, but they didn't waste much time making their final determination.

Magglio Ordonez, Johnny Damon, Jeremy Bonderman, Bobby Seay and Gerald Laird are all as free as can be after the Tigers announced Tuesday morning that they did not offer any of them salary arbitration. The Tigers still can, of course, sign any of the five, but Tuesday's news means they won't receive Draft pick compensation should Ordonez, Damon or Laird sign elsewhere.

Ordonez qualifies as a Type A free agent under the player ranking system calculated by the Elias Sports Bureau. Had he been offered arbitration and turned it down to sign elsewhere, the Tigers would have received the signing club's first-round Draft pick (or second-round pick, if the club had a pick in the top 15), as well as a sandwich round selection between the first and second rounds in next year's Draft.

However, Ordonez could have accepted the arbitration offer and been guaranteed at least a $14.4 million salary for 2011 (and, in reality, probably much more), because Ordonez made $18 million last year and players who go through the arbitration process cannot receive more than a 20 percent decrease in their pay. That's why the Tigers didn't offer Ordonez arbitration, even though they do hope to bring him back.

Ordonez batted .303 with 12 homers and 59 RBIs in 2010 before breaking his ankle in July, cutting his season short.

Damon, who made $8 million in 2010, and Laird, who made $3.95 million, also would have reaped the Tigers some Draft pick compensation had they been offered arbitration and signed elsewhere. They both qualified as Type B free agents under the Elias rankings, so the Tigers would have been eligible to receive a sandwich round selection between the second and third rounds for them.

Again, though, the Tigers didn't want to run the risk of either player accepting the arbitration offer and earning more than the Tigers were willing to pay. Some players are worth more in the arbitration system than they are on the open market. The Tigers had already made it clear to both players that the club intended to part ways with them.

Bonderman and Seay did not rank as Type A or Type B free agents, so the arbitration decision on them was already made.

Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, CastroTurf, and follow him on Twitter at @Castrovince. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.