Twins Avoid Arbitration On Fien, Nunez Miss On Others
As we found out earlier today, the Twins avoided arbitration on both Trevor Plouffe and Tommy Milone in coming to terms with a new deal. We can now add both Casey Fien and Eduardo Nunez to that bunch as well. Unfortunately for the Twins, they failed to come to an agreement with both Jordan Schafer and Brian Duensing.
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Setup man Casey Fien struck a $1.375 million deal with the Twins, while utility man, and former New York Yankee, Eduardo Nunez agreed to a $1.025 million deal. After failing to reach an agreement with both Brian Duensing and Jordan Schafer, numbers had to be exchanged on Friday in preparation of a hearing process that will get underway on February 1.
The last time the Twins went to an arbitration hearing was with pitcher Kyle Lohse, in which they lost consecutive years to agent Scott Boras.
Fien, who is now 31, played last season for $530,000 and after qualifying for his first year of arbitration. He gets a nice salary bump that more than doubles his money earned of a season ago. Nunez was projected to earn around $1.2 million in arbitration and checks in just below that amount for the Twins. There was some belief the Twins may move on from Nunez, but this all but cements his roster spot.
MLB Trade Rumors projected Brian Duensing at $2.5 million through arbitration, but Duensing is looking to cash in a little bit further after a strong 2014 campaign. He can be a free agent following the 2015 season. After the Twins snatched Jordan Schafer from the Atlanta Braves, he made $1.09 million a season ago, and was projected at $1.5 million this season.
With the February 1 date still more than two weeks away, the Twins do have plenty of time to come to an agreement with both players before reaching a hearing.
Regardless, with the offseason additions and the payroll adjustments for arbitration, the Twins should have a 2015 projected payroll north of $106 million, making it the second highest mark in club history.
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