The seven Royals players still eligible for arbitration all filed on Tuesday.
The Royals entered the current offseason with 12 players eligible for arbitration. By designating George Kottaras for assignment (and later sending him to the Cubs), non-tendering Chris Getz, outfighting Felipe Paulino and waiving Luis Mendoza and his magnificent head of hair, the Royals pared their list to eight. Brett Hayes signed a one-year deal for $630k last weekend, so now there are seven.
Here's the list and their estimated contracts from MLB Trade Rumors:
Luke Hochevar - $5 million
Greg Holland - $4.9 million
Eric Hosmer - $4.1 million
Emilio Bonifacio - $3.3 million
Aaron Crow - 1.9 million
Justin Maxwell - $1.2 million
Tim Collins - $1 million
Of note from the MLB Trade Rumors list was they estimated Hayes to earn $900,000 next year. So between the recently revealed Jeremy Guthrie contract restructuring and the almost $300,000 in savings on the Hayes deal, Dayton Moore is now in line for associate of the month at the Blue Springs Wal-Mart. (Haha... Wal-Mart joke. Get it?)
Of the above list, all but Hochevar and Bonifacio are eligible for the first time. This is Bonifacio's third time through the system, while Hochevar is going through this for the fourth time. Hosmer qualifies as a Super-Two.
As noted by the Star, Moore has yet to take a contract all the way to an arbitration hearing. While that may sound like some sort of concrete policy, it probably has more to do with the current contract structure in the game. As the article notes, since Moore became the Royals GM in 2006, 15 of the 30 teams have avoided arbitration. Including all five teams from the AL Central.
Now that the players have filed for arbitration, the next step will be for the players and teams to exchange numbers. That will happen on Friday.
Last year, the Royals had five players eligible for arbitration and agreed to contracts with all five before even exchanging figures. The last time the Royals exchanged figures with one of their players was with Alex Gordon following the 2011 season. Gordon asked for $5.45 million and the Royals countered with $4.15 million. They settled right at the midpoint at $4.8 million. A month and a half later, Gordon signed a contract extension totaling four years and $37.5 million. That extension bumped his 2012 salary to $6 million.
Hearings will be held from February 1 through the 21st. Negotiations between players and the team can continue right up until the hearing.