Cabrera Wins Arbitration Case
February 18, 2007 in Contracts by jonnylons
Miguel Cabrera and the Marlins went to court to settle the arbitration case over what amount Cabrera would be paid for the 2007 season.
Would it be $6.7M, the figure the Marlins were pushing for or would it be for $7.4M, the amount Cabrera’s representatives felt was fair?
The hearing settled on the latter, and the Marlins are out an extra 700K for another years service from Cabrera.
Some would say that this negotiation was a failure for the Marlins, as they did not budge from their figures and instead ran their young, promising player through the arbitration process. Could this hurt the relationship between the team and its best player? That will remain to be seen. It certainly wouldn’t help create a feeling of amicability.
Still, recently Miguel has shown a professional, mature attitude in this whole process. That doesn’t say things will be smooth from here on out, but it does at least give hope.
Of course, everything could change if the Marlins could just nail down that stadium deal.
As it is, that is where everything is heading towards. With a new stadium and the promising revenue from that, the Marlins could afford to keep Miguel on board for even longer. The problem is now that they have been pushing aside any long-term deal for their young players, they will start to lose out on savings. They could have signed Miguel after 2004 to a more generous offer then, say 30M, and they could have locked up the young stud for more years and more savings. Instead, the secret is out, and the Marlins are going to have to compete for top dollar to keep him.
The arbitration hearing is only the first indication of that fact.
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The relationship was ruined last year when Cabrera fired Scott Boras who could not get him one penny more than the minimum allowed. This hearing wasn’t about $700,000. It was about pride amd Cabrera sending a message to the Marlins owner, that the days of having a salary dictated to him are over. If cabrera continues to put up big numbers, then the price will be at least $10 million next year. Now that he’s got some serious money, he can afford to ride the process out for 3 more years and test the market through free agency. IThe Marlins know that it’s inevitable that they are going to lose him. The Angels have a stable of prospects to offer them. Brandon Wood, Nick Adenhart and Jose Arredondo are only a year or two out from reaching the bigs. If they continue to progress, I expect a deal to materialize before the 2008 season.
I hope to God this can be salvaged, but the more successful Cabrera is, the more the reason for him to go to the highest bidder. He can win here, but he can win anywhere if the situation is right.