The Braves and left-hander Mike Minor could be headed to the team’s first arbitration hearing in 14 years. This after the sides failed to reach an agreement on a contract before Friday’s deadline for teams to do so or swap salary figures with unsigned arbitration-eligible players in preparation for hearings next month.
He was the Braves’ only unsigned arbitration-eligible player (they traded away several others this offseason).
Minor, who turned 27 the day after Christmas, made $3.85 million last season in his first year of arbitration eligibility and had a career-worst 6-12 record and 4.77 ERA in 25 starts, after missing much of spring training due to shoulder tendinitis and beginning the season on the disabled list.
He filed a $5.6 million proposal Friday and the team countered at$5.1 million.
Minor’s shoulder first became inflamed last year in the opening week of spring training, when he ramped up his activities after being unable to work out or throw in January due to Dec. 31 urinary tract surgery. He had shoulder soreness periodically during the season and was held from his last start of the year as a precautionary measure.
The Braves last went to an arbitration hearing in 2001 with John Rocker. A year ago, they failed to reach agreements with three arbitration-eligible players, Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward and Craig Kimbrel, but signed all of them to multi-year contracts in February before any of the cases went to hearings.
In 2009, the Braves came to terms with Jeff Francoeur the night before a scheduled arbitration hearing. Since then they changed their strategy and no longer will negotiate a one-year contract with a player between salary-swap day and an arbitration hearing.
