The Orioles reached agreement on a one-year contract with first baseman/outfielder Trey Mancini for $4.75 million on Friday. That’s the same salary Mancini agreed to for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season that he missed because of colon cancer surgery.
While the Orioles reached agreement with Mancini, who was voted Most Valuable Oriole in 2019, they failed to come to terms with outfielder Anthony Santander, who the award winner in 2020.
Santander, who missed the last three weeks of 2020 because of an oblique injury, hit .261 with an .890 OPS with 11 homers and 32 RBIs in 37 games.
The 26-year-old, who is in his first year of eligibility for arbitration, had a contract for $546,500 in 2020. Santander filed for $2.475 million while the Orioles countered with $2.1 million, according to MLB.com.
Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said the team will proceed to arbitration with Santander.
“We have a file-to-go policy that I’ve been very consistent with since being here,” Elias said on Friday in a video conference call.
In Elias’ first two years, the Orioles were able to reach agreement with all their arbitration-eligible players by the deadline for filing, which was 1 p.m. Friday.
“With us not having been able to reach an agreement with him, which is OK, it’s part of the process, it happens,” Elias said. “We will be proceeding to arbitration.”
Elias said that 2020’s 60-game season affected the arbitration formula.
“It [was ]definitely an unknown element,” Elias said. “It has, it seems like across the industry, from what we’re hearing and seeing, created some extra space for people to maybe not be speaking the exact same language because of how strange the shortened season was. I think that was to have been expected, and it’s definitely a factor.”
On December 2nd, the Orioles avoided arbitration with four other players — right-handed pitcher Shawn Armstrong ($825,000), infielder Yolmer Sánchez ($1 million), catcher Pedro Severino ($1.8 million) and infielder Pat Valaika ($875,000 majors/$300,000 minors). They released first baseman Renato Núñez and didn’t offer a contract to second baseman Hanser Alberto.
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Jon Meoli had an interesting article in the Sun today about CD, someone needs to blink...go O’s...
Seems like a fair outcome for Trey and Santander. Santander will get a nice raise, double or triple his contract salary rate. A month away for scheduled start of Spring Training!
Funny, they’ll give a 16 & 17 yr old at least 7 figures & won’t give Santander his right away after he’s already proven he can do it...go O’s...
You have a good point there.
I was thinking that all day 7 figures for unproven 17 year olds in the Dominican which is like 100 million for them and Iglesias 3.5 was to much so we could have a major league SS this season
If Severino is worth $1.8 million then we should resign Rick Dempsey who has to worth a million even at his age. C’mon man!
:)...go O’s...
They need to considering actually locking a player up every now and then. I know they're still feeling the pain from the Chris Davis contract, but c'mon man, this is a major league team. Sign Tony Santander to a 4-5 year contract for crying out loud.What would that cost? 20 to 30 million?
Agree. Pay Santander some money. I bet u get him 4 years at less than $20 million
Santander isn’t an unrestricted free agent until after the 2024 season. Why rush to a guaranteed contract and lose out on the 3 more years of arbitration if you’re the Orioles? He’s under team control, he’s not going anywhere.
3 years are not 4 or 5. Besides, wait and see what an arbitrator will give him 3 years from now. 5 or 6 million per will seem like a bargain by then.
According to MASN Roch, Santander is asking for 2.475 million and the Orioles are offering 2.1. The midpoint is 2,287,500 million. I know Elias talks about “file and trial” but a compromise of 187 thousand won’t break the bank. But even if Santander loses, it’s more than MLBTradeRumors projected
Exactly what I was thinking. I don't care for the hard nosed attitude. Arbitration can be very nasty, why risk alienating a talented player over such a small amount?