This week features another offseason deadline, arbitration Friday. Team officials have until noon this Friday to present dollar amounts to players eligible for arbitration. The New York Yankees have nine arbitration-eligible players, most of which are pitchers. The project salary number for right fielder Aaron Judge will draw the most interest. Judge, who hit 52 home runs in his debut year, and 27 in each of the last two injury-shortened seasons is expected to get the most significant raise. Arbitration dollars are usually figured based on the player’s performance in the previous season. However, for those players who are becoming eligible for the first time, their entire career may come into play when determining the final amount.
To fully understand the arbitration process, it’s fully explained on MLBTraderumors.com Aaron Judge presently earns $3..051 million, according to the projection model Judge would be offered $6.4 million. The New York Yankees consider Judge to be the face of the franchise and would like to see him become another Derek Jeter, and spend his entire career with the Yankees. Considering how important he is to the club, it is believed that the Yankees will avoid an arbitration hearing that could be caused by Judge feeling the offered amount is not what he would want.
Considering all of this, the offer could be much more than the projected model amount. His salary could be in the $10 million area. You can be sure that Judge has looked at what other star players got when they first reached eligibility. Francisco Lindor got $10.55 million this past year. Mookie Betts of the Red Sox got $10.5 million in 2017. Don’t be surprised to see Aaron Judge eclipse either of those players. The last time the Yankees went to an arbitration hearing was with Dellin Betances, and that turned ugly. Betances is now a New York Met.
The New York Yankees will have to dish out some dollars to other players:
Other players who will be given raises are pitcher James Paxton who is expected to get near $13 million a $4 million raise. Jordan Montgomery will have his low salary doubled to $1.2 million. Tommy Kahnle will go from $1.387 million to $3 million. Chad Green will go from $1.4 million to just over $3 million. Luis Cessa’s salary will be doubled to just over $2 million. Jonathan Holder will go from $800k to $2.1 million.
The other position players who will be offered raises are Gio Urshela and Gary Sanchez. The big winner percentage-wise will be third baseman Gio Urshela, who presently earns the league minimum of $555k, he is expected to get $2.2 million. Gary Sanchez, on the other hand, once expected to get big dollars just like Aaron Judge, will get far less. His injuries and past performance have ruined his chances of pulling in the big dollars as he first becomes arbitration-eligible. He presently earns $669.8k. He will most likely be presented with an offer between $5-6 million.