The off-season is upon us the the first order of winter business is the annual arbitration salary releases. Portland faced arbitration with 10 of the players from last year's roster. The front office opted to let 3 players walk (5th outfielder Ryan Corke, reliever Jacob Cruz, and backup catcherDan Cobbs) while going with the arbitrator's figure on 5 others. Portland reached a last minute deal with two others, allowing the team to avoid arbitration all together.
All-Star catcher Allan Uecker signed a 3 year contract extension worth $18 million ($6 million AAV) to avoid the arbitration process. The deal is player friendly for the first two years while the organization hopes the final year saves the team money down the road. An injury sidelined Uecker a season ago, limiting him to just 109 games. But during that span he still produced 3.7 WAR, a dip from the 5.3 WAR the previous season. But having produced 11.9 WAR over his first 3 seasons, the front office wanted to have a solid figure locked down for the next 3 of Uecker's career.
"Any time you go the contract route, you're rolling the dice" staged AGM Sandy Mounds. "But you're taking a gamble going to arbitration as well. There's the chance Allan doesn't perform and we could have gotten him for cheaper down the road, but we don't want to bank on that. We want to bank on him being the same player the next 3 years as he has been these last 3 years. We had the flexibility with our cap space now to go ahead and pay a little now and hopefully save some for later. Optimistically, this gives us more flexibility in the future as well."
The team also avoided arbitration with Alvin Conley by signing the outfielder to a 3 year, $8.4 million deal ($2.8 AAV). Conley's last 2 seasons have been derailed by injury as he's produced just 1.6 and 0.4 WAR while playing in 102 and 87 games respectively. This after a rookie season that saw him tally 3.1 total WAR.
"There are some injury concerns with Alvin for sure" added Mounds, "but we think for this price it's worth the risk on both sides. He knows his health could be an issue so who knows what his arbitration could be in the next few years. We also know he could produce like his rookie year and sky rocket. So both sides decided not to gamble with it and came to a good deal for both sides."
After these signings and arbitration, Portland enters the free agency period with a salary of under $73 million. With 3/5 of the rotation back, 2 rookies ready to make their debut in 2061, and the entire lineup back in tact from an offense that scored the 3rd most runs in 2060, Portland likes it's situation heading into the off-season.
