Minnesota Twins Avoid Arbitration With Kevin Jepsen
The Minnesota Twins sign Kevin Jepsen to a one year deal avoiding arbitration
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The Minnesota Twins have avoided arbitration with Kevin Jepsen agreeing to a one year deal worth $5.3125 million. The Twins weren’t able to work out an agreement with Jepsen before the arbitration filing deadline and so the two sides exchanged figures. The team’s offer and Jepsen’s ask weren’t very far apart: $5.05 million and $5.4 million respectively. With the two sides being so close, the was never a real concern that this case would go to a hearing. When team and player are farther apart, like with Aroldis Chapman vs Yankees and Jake Arrieta vs Cubs, that’s when a contract to avoid arbitration is tougher to work out. The Twins can be thankful that they are not in such a situation.
The most common scenario when both sides are close, for a non file and trial team (like the Twins), is for the team and player to meet roughly in the middle. In this case, the agreement landed closer to Jepsen’s ask. It wasn’t worth quibbling about and it’s a good sign that the two sides were able to work things out well in advance of the hearing date.
MLBTR had predicted a $6 million arbitration award for Jepsen.
Just landed. #MNTwins avoided arbitration w/RHP Kevin Jepsen at $5.3125 million. A little higher than midpoint.
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) January 22, 2016
Plouffe remains unsigned and currently heading toward a hearing. He asked for $7.95 million and the team offered $7 million. MLBTR predicted a $7.7 million contract for Plouffe. Even though the team and player are farther apart, it’s still highly likely that they’ll be able to resolve things without going to a hearing.
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The Twins are now are $91.5125 million in guaranteed contracts for 2016. Added on roughly what Plouffe’s contract will turn out to be and remaining player costs (pre-arb), the Twins will end up at $111.2 million as things stand.