[mikev]

Arby Eligible Players and Pending Free Agents

As the 2011/2012 offseason gets underway, the first order of business in California is to sort through the arbitration eligible players, as well as pending free agents.

Here's the list of notable players, as well as what action we plan on taking with each player:

Pending Free Agents

OF Carlos Garza
2011: .260/.338/.465, 38HR, 124RBI, 32.8 VORP[/i]

Garza will not be tendered an extension offer. His current $12.6M salary is manageable, but he is asking for over $16.5M per year for 4 years. Too rich for our blood, considering that he'd be signed through his age 37 season.

OF Joaquin Lopez
2011: .272/.327/.516, 22HR, 64 RBI, 26.4 VORP[/i]

Lopez, like Garza, is asking for a significant raise from his $11M, to just over $15M per season. As he is younger than Garza and plays a premium position, we have made him a counter offer.

SP Javier Lugo
2011: 4-4, 2.69, 77 IP, 18.2 VORP[/i]

Lugo seems to have had his talents drop, and will not be offered a contract. We've got plenty of starting pitching.

Arbitration Eligible Players

SP Jorge Enriquez
2011: 22-5, 2.98, 262 IP, 54.4 VORP[/i]

This dude is gonna cost me. We've made him a long term contract offer in order to avoid arbitration, though.

SP Arturo Fernandez
2011: 17-10, 3.43, 250 IP, 38.5 VORP[/i]

Like Enriquez, Big Time seems to have found his groove as a starter, putting together a pair of solid seasons. We've offered him a long term extension as well.

SS Rafael Lopez
2011: .265/.338/.384, 11HR, 78RBI, 28.2 VORP[/i]

Lopez had an extremely slow start, but finished the year with two solid months in the mid .800 OPS range. The popular 25 year old was offered a multi year deal.

SP Masahiko Hayagawa
2011: 14-8, 3.27, 225 IP, 39.1 VORP[/i]

Hayagawa had a fantastic season as the #4 starter for us, and has been offered a contract at a decent increase over his current salary.

Several other players are arbitration eligible, but at this time we are going to let the arbitration hearings play themselves out.