Via Ken Rosenthal: The players’ union expects Brett Gardner’s salary for next season to be “considerably higher” than the $4M projected by Matt Swartz. Rosenthal notes Michael Bourn, a more prolific base-stealer who had a lower career OBP and SLG than Gardner, earned $6.845M in his final trip through arbitration two years ago.
Gardner, 30, hit .273/.344/.416 (108 wRC+) with eight homers and 24 steals this past season. His skillset — okay AVG, good OBP, little power, good amount of steals, great defense — is not one that pays well through the archaic arbitration system, which loves things like homers and RBI and awards. The injuries, particularly the lost 2012 season, will hurt his earning power as well. Gardner made $2.85M in 2013 and the projected $1.15M raise does seem a little light to me. We’ll find out how each side values him when they file their arbitration numbers next month.
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