Dan Connolly

McFarland also avoids arbitration — settles for $685,000 deal in 2017

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The Orioles have reduced their arbitration-eligible players from nine to seven on Thursday night.

According to a source, left-hander T.J. McFarland and the Orioles agreed to a one-year, $685,000 deal to avoid arbitration.

McFarland, 27, went 2-2 with a 6.93 ERA in 16 games with the Orioles in an injury-riddled season that also included 13 games at four different spots in the minors while he rehabbed a left knee injury.

The long reliever made $523,500 last year, his fourth in the Orioles’ organization.

Earlier on Thursday, the Orioles agreed to a one-year, $1.8 million deal with infielder Ryan Flaherty, who gets a bump from his $1.5 million salary in 2016.

The Orioles have seven players remaining that are arbitration-eligible: Chris Tillman, Zach Britton, Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop, Kevin Gausman, Brad Brach and Caleb Joseph.

If the sides can’t reach a settlement by 1 p.m. Friday, each will submit an arbitration figure. The sides can continue to negotiate until a hearing in early February, after which one of the salaries will be selected.

FanRagSports.com had McFarland’s settlement first.

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Dan Connolly

Dan Connolly has spent more than two decades as a print journalist in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Baltimore native and Calvert Hall graduate first covered the Orioles as a beat writer for the York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record in 2001 before becoming The Baltimore Sun’s national baseball writer/Orioles reporter in 2005. He has won multiple state and national writing awards, including several from the Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2013 he was named Maryland Co-Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. And in 2015, he authored his first book, "100 Things Orioles Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." He lives in York, with his wife, Karen, and three children, Alex, Annie, and Grace.

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Boog Robinson Robinson says:

January 13, 2017 at 8:11 am

523k? Peanuts for a guy that can provide innings from the 1st base side of the mound. Can't have enough serviceable southpaws in my opinion. Here's to a comeback/breakout season by McFarland.
- marcshank says:
  
  January 20, 2017 at 12:49 am
  
  I liked McFarland before he was injured. I agree, this could be the long reliever we'll need this year.