Deadline Day for Arbitration Decisions

From Anthony McCarron:

The Yankee offseason - and the future of the club's player development - could be affected by Monday's arbitration deadline, a little bit of baseball bookkeeping that could influence Bobby Abreu and Andy Pettitte.

Pettitte likely would earn around the $16 million he's pocketed the last two seasons if he accepts arbitration, but it seems unlikely the Yanks will offer it - if they wanted to pay Pettitte that much money, he'd likely already have been re-signed. Instead, the team wants him to take a pay cut after a 14-14 season.

Abreu is seeking a three-year deal, something the Yankees apparently have no interest in, because they have not engaged his agent since the end of the season.

Jason Giambi won't be offered arbitration by the Yankees because they have no incentive to do so - he's not a Type A or B free agent, so they wouldn't get compensation elsewhere and, who knows, he might accept.

Other Yankees free agents that could, but won't be offered arbitration are Carl Pavano and Ivan Rodriguez.

The Yankees get draft picks if any of they offer any of their free agents arbitration and he signs with another team. If the player is a Type A free agent and signs elsewhere, the Yanks will get that team's first-round pick plus a supplemental first-round pick. If it's a Type B free agent the Yankees only get the supplemental pick.

And here's MLB.com's explanation for how the arbitration process works.

I think the Yankees should offer Abreu arbitration just for the picks. He's a Type A free agent, and he probably won't accept it because he probably already know he can get the kind of deal he wants from another team. Ken Davidoff believes the Yankees will offer Abreu arbitration.

But they're apparently not going to offer Pettitte arbitration, which is fine, I'd be happy if they did, but I can understand why they don't want to pay him close to the $16 MM they did last year. But I still think they need to get him resigned pretty soon.

UPDATE from Joel Sherman:

For months that had been a foregone conclusion. The Yanks figured they would offer Abreu arbitration, that he would refuse and that he would then sign somewhere else with the Yankees recouping both a first-round pick and a sandwich pick in next June's draft because Abreu is ranked as a Type-A free agent.

However, the Yankees have now become worried that the market is so stalled that Abreu just might accept their offer of arbitration with the idea of going back into free agency next offseason when the economy is better. Abreu made $16 million last year and had a strong enough season that he would not receive a paycut in the arbitration process. Thus, the Yanks might be looking at, say, a $17 million Bobby Abreu next year if he decided to accept arbitration.

It would be a big problem if the Yankees got stuck with Abreu for another year. They already have Damon, Nady, Matsui, and possibly Swisher fighting for playing time at a corner outfield position and DH, adding Abreu would just create more of a mess.