Jeter, Rivera not offered arbitration
Published 2:15 am Wednesday, November 24, 2010
NEW YORK (AP) — Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Manny Ramirez failed to receive salary arbitration offers as one of the first deadlines of baseball’s offseason passed.
Texas pitcher Cliff Lee, Philadelphia outfielder Jayson Werth and Washington first baseman Adam Dunn did receive arbitration offers. If they sign with new teams, their old clubs would receive extra picks in next June’s amateur draft as compensation.
While the elite free agents are still on the market, San Francisco kept first baseman Aubrey Huff, agreeing to a $22 million, two-year contract after he helped the Giants win the World Series for the first time since 1954.
And catcher Victor Martinez reached a preliminary agreement on a $50 million, four-year contract with the Detroit Tigers, a person familiar with the agreement told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal, which was subject to a physical, had not yet been announced.
New York has made a $45 million, three-year offer to Jeter, a baseball executive with knowledge of the proposal said, speaking on condition of anonymity because it wasn’t made public. Jeter is coming off a $189 million, 10-year contract.
“As much as we want to keep everybody, we’ve already made these guys very, very rich, and I don’t feel we owe anybody anything monetarily,” Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner said. “Some of these players are wealthier than their bosses.”
Huff took a short break to decompress after the World Series, then agreed to a contract with the World Series champions that pays him $10 million in each of the next two seasons. The Giants have a $10 million club option for 2013 with a $2 million buyout.
“There was a big interest out there. But in the end, it wasn’t going to take much to come back here for me,” Huff said. “Some other team would have had to blow me away with like a four-year deal or something and a lot, a lot of dough to stay away from here.”
The Nationals offered salary arbitration to Dunn, assuring the team of receiving draft pick compensation if he signs elsewhere as a free agent.
Major league clubs faced a deadline of Tuesday night at midnight to decide whether to offer eligible players arbitration. Players have until Nov. 30 to accept.
Dunn finished second in the NL with 38 homers in 2010, his seventh consecutive season with at least that many. He also led Washington with 103 RBIs, while hitting .260 and striking out 199 times.