The Edinburgh News
Edinburgh - The Scottish Claymores came away from the PEBA’s annual arbitration sessions with a few minor wins – and two major defeats.
Vincent Powell, who had a monster season in 2029, came away with nearly double what the team had offered in arbitration. The Scottish offered $7,350,00 (up from his $1.8 million contract last season), but the arbitration panel awarded him $14,375,000 for 2030.
“You would think that offering someone more than four times what they had been earning would be a reasonable offer,” said Claymores GM Vic Caleca from his Central Indiana base of operations. “But, apparently, in the spendthrift world of PEBA arbitration, that’s not good enough. No, according to the pinheads on the arbitration panel, we should have offered him eight times what he’d been earning. Outrageous.”
Vincent Powell
Critics, of course, observed that Scotland shouldn’t have been surprised, given that Powell slashed .303/.613/.1.004, along with 40 home runs, 106 RBIs, 6.2 WAR and a second-place finish in the Imperial League’s Royal Raker Award balloting.
“What - they thought they could nickel and dime a guy after that kind of season? I think the Scottish must be deeper in their cups than we even imagined,” said Malcolm Wilkes, who writes the IL column for PEBA Weekly.
“They got blindsided on another one, too – the decision for their shortstop, Naomi Honma, seemed to surprise only the folks in the Claymores front office,” Wilkes said. “They really need to pay more attention.”
Naomi Honma
Honma’s decision wasn’t nearly as lopsided as Powell’s, but it was still a significant chunk of change for a team that needs a generous free agent budget to add starting pitching this offseason.
The arbitration board awarded Honma $9,375,000 for 2030, some $1.1 million more than the Claymores had offered their two-time All-Star shortstop. The team had offered $8,250,000 – which Caleca and others thought was a fair raise over the $510,000 he’d earned last season.
“Those arb panelists are just out of control,” Caleca fumed. “This is socialist wealth redistribution is what this is!”
Of course, another way to look at it is that Honma made his case for the contract through a marvelous season: .279/.337/.488 with 25 home runs, 92 RBIs, 7.2 WAR, and world-class fielding at a crucial position.
The Scottish also got dinged on the arbitration decision for closer Ken Fisher, who came away with a $4,250,000 contract rather than the $3,740,000 offered by the team.
GM Vic Caleca
“Another case where they should have seen it coming,” Wilkes said. “Fisher is one of the top closers in the game, and they tried to lowball him.”
Fisher, who led the league with 46 saves in 2029, had earned $2.6 million in 2029.
Other arbitration cases and their results included:
- SP Soichiro Ogawa, awarded a $1.1 million contract, although he asked for $1.375 million.
- CF Teruo Nagai got an $800,000 contract, despite requesting $1.275 million.
- RP Manuel Hernández received a $1.4 million contract, despite requesting $11.2 million.
“It’s a sham of a mockery of a sham, if you ask me,” Caleca said. “I wouldn’t award those knuckleheads on the arbitration panel even one red cent for the job they did. Of course, maybe they don’t need money in their hippy dippy arbitration communes, or wherever they hang out.
“But back here in the real world, we need to sign some starting pitching – we can’t be blowing our whole budget on arbitration wet dreams.”
It may only be Dec. 3 in PEBAland, folks, but Caleca sounds like he’s already worked himself into a midseason lather.
Buckle up.
