Miller Shed ($3.3M -> $8.0M) Miller continues to be the face of the franchise. His overall WAR seems to be down this year with a projected 3.2 compared to the two prior seasons when he was at 5. His average of .317 and on-base percentage of .377 are in line with his previous two seasons but his RBI total projects to be 30 less than last season. That is probably an effect of the batters in front of him not doing as good of a job getting on base.
PREDICTION: Miller will be offered Arbitration if he does not agree to a contract prior to then.
Vicente Rivera ($2.1M -> $4.0M) Going ino his final year of arbitration, Vincente has made the most of his opportunity at the plate during the 2061 season. Vincente is on pace for a 2.9 WAR season playing mostly DH for Valencia. He currently has a batting average of .323 with an on-base percentage of .381. Vincente has also added 10 homers and 46 RBI this season.
PREDICTION: Vicente will be offered Arbitration if he does not agree to a contract prior to then.
Xavier Vargas ($2.4M -> $2.8M) Xavier will be entering his final arbitration season as well, but his production in 2061 has fallen off quite a bit. After back to back 2-ish type WAR seasons, Xavier is projected to have a -1.1 WAR this season. He currently has a 4-2 record with a 6.33 ERA numbers worthy enough to have him moved from the starting rotation to mop-up duty in the bullpen.
PREDICTION: Xavier will NOT be offered Arbitration.
Jonathan Bryant ($2.0M -> $3.0M) The third player in this list to enter his final year of arbitration. Jonathan has been pitching in the #4 spot for the majority of the season. Jonathan currenty has a record of 3-8 with a 4.52 ERA. Four of Jonathan's losses have come when he has went 6 innings allowing 2 or fewer earned runs so he has been a victim of minimal run support in some of those outings. The projected WAR for the sole lefty of the starting rotation currently is 2.3 for the year which would warrant a $3M salary unless the team goes into total rebuild mode.
PREDICTION: Jonathan MAY be offered Arbitration depending on how the remainder of 2061 turns out.
Juan Garcia ($2.3M ->$4.4M) Juan is currently in the 31 slot of the starting rotation. His record and stats do not reflect how the scouts are rating him to this point in the season as he is 3-9 with an ERA of 4.97 and a projected WAR of 1.8. He has three quality starts in those 9 losses so some could say that he is pitching at a .500 level where he could be 6-6. Not ace quality numbers but enough to justify a $4.4M price tag or thereabouts.
PREDICTION: Juan will be offered Arbitration if he does not agree to a contract prior to then.
Tyler Conklin ($1.3M -> $2.2M) Tyler continues to be a gem in the middle infield but less than ideal at the plate. His .226 batting average/.237 on-base percentage makes his WAR about break-even for the season compared to his 0.9 and 0.5 WAR over the previous two seasons.
PREDICTION: Tyler will be offered Arbitration if he does not agree to a contract prior to then.
Carlos Schumann ($1.3M -> $3.0M) Carlos did some work in the off-season to be an option at third base when needed. Playing back-up at all three positions will net Carlos about 330 at bats this season to go along with his .250 average and a projected 0.8 WAR.
PREDICTION: Carlos will be offered Arbitration if he does not agree to a contract prior to then.
Kevin Lambert ($1.2M -> $2.2M) Kevin is on pace to have 245 at bats as a back-up in the outfield. Kevin is currently on pace for a -1.5 WAR thanks to a big dip in his batting average from last year (.184 versus .264).
PREDICTION: Kevin will be NOT be offered Arbitration.
Eduardo Moreno ($500K -> $3.8M) Eduardo has been a pleasant surprise for the pitching staff as he is on pace to have a 4.0 WAR. His ERA is 2.95 and WHIP is 0.87 over his 61 innings of work in the bullpen so far. The bullpen seems to be much more suitable for Eduardo than the starting rotation after his offseason conversion.
PREDICTION: Eduardo will be offered Arbitration if he does not agree to a contract prior to then.
If the Stars tendered offers for the 7 players above (not counting Vargas and Lambert) equivalent to their arbitration estimates, the Stars will be shelling out an additional $12M per year. The current payroll for Valencia is roughly $111.5M.
With the salary cap being reduced from $115M to $110M next season, there will be a lot of decisions to be made to stay under the payroll cap.