Luis Arraez is going to get a big raise for winning the American League batting title last season. How big, it might be up to a neutral arbitrator to decide.
The other 39 players on the Twins' 40-man roster now have contracts for 2023 after seven of the team's eight arbitration-eligible players reached agreements with the team on their salaries for the coming season.
One of them, starter Chris Paddack, got a three-year extension despite the possibility he will miss much of the season after last May's Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery.
Friday was the deadline for MLB teams and their players to disclose the salaries they planned to propose in arbitration hearings to take place later this month or in February. It's normal in most cases for the sides to quickly find middle ground on their own, avoiding the risk and formality of asking for a ruling.
That's how new utility infielder Kyle Farmer agreed to a salary of $5.585 million next season, a 77% raise from 2022. Or how lefthander Caleb Thielbar got an 84.6% increase, to $2.4 million. Or how All-Star righthander Jorge Lopez more than doubled his salary from $1.5 million to $3.525 next season, a 135% raise.
The process, obviously, is designed to reward service time almost as much as performance, which is why righthander Emilio Pagan, despite six losses and seven blown saves and a 4.43 ERA in his first season with the Twins, received a 52.2% raise for 2023, from $2.3 million to $3.5 million.
Paddack will get $2.5 million in each of the next two seasons, and $7.5 million in 2025, which would have been the 27-year-old righthander's first year of free agency. There are also incentives, reported MLB Network.
Righthanders Tyler Mahle ($7.5 million) and Jorge Alcalá ($790,000) also settled on salaries for 2023 — leaving only Arraez still unsigned.
The Twins first baseman took a long time to settle on a salary last summer, too, partly because all hearings were delayed by the MLB lockout. Arraez finally avoided a hearing in early May, settling on a $2.125 million paycheck. Then he was named to the AL All-Star team in July, drew more walks than strikeouts, led the team in hits and doubles, and became the first Twin to win a batting title since Joe Mauer, posting a .316 average.
That production figures to double or even triple his salary, which likely explains why the sides were unable to immediately settle on a number.
MLB.com reported the Twins offered $5 million and Arraez's camp proposed $6.1 million. The two sides can reach agreement at any time until an arbitrator hears the case and chooses one of the two proposals.
If it gets that far, Arraez would become only the second Twins player in 17 seasons to have his case decided in a hearing. Kyle Gibson, awarded $4.2 million in 2018 rather than the $4.55 million he requested, is the lone exception.
Lee to join big-league camp
Brooks Lee has played only 31 games as a professional, but the Twins already want to compare their most recent No. 1 pick to big leaguers.
Lee, a shortstop drafted eighth overall out of Cal Poly, is one of 25 players invited to join the 40 already on the Twins roster in the team's training camp in February. There is little chance that Lee, who played at Class A Cedar Rapids and AA Wichita last summer, will actually make the team this spring, but it's a sign of how impressed the team's decision-makers already are in the 21-year-old.
Another first-rounder, first baseman Aaron Sabato, chosen 27th overall in 2020, will join the major leaguers in spring training, too, as will Class AA outfielder Austin Martin, the fifth overall pick by Toronto in 2020.
Also coming to camp are four former Twins: lefthander Danny Coulombe, righthander Randy Dobnak and outfielders Mark Contreras and Ryan LaMarre, the latter of whom appeared in nine games with the Yankees in 2021.
In addition, eight other invitees have major league experience with other teams: ex-Tigers infielder Willi Castro; ex-Tigers and Diamondbacks catcher Grayson Greiner; backup Orioles catcher Chance Sisco; longtime Rockies catcher Tony Walters; former Twins draftee Elliot Soto, an infielder who debuted with the Angels; first baseman Tyler White, who gained postseason experience during his four seasons with the Astros; and righthanders Jose De Leon (Reds, Dodgers and Rays); and Patrick Murphy (Blue Jays and Nationals).
Enlow still in system
Righthander Blayne Enlow, designated for assignment last week in order to clear roster space for waiver-claim reliever Oliver Ortega — who has already been waived in the interim — cleared waivers on Friday and was assigned outright to Class AA Wichita, the team announced.
Enlow, a third-round pick in 2017, appeared in 25 games last season for Wichita, posting a 5.18 ERA one year after undergoing ligament-replacement surgery in his pitching elbow. He, too, was invited to major league camp.