LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Mike Minor won the first Braves salary-arbitration hearing in more than a decade, which means the left-hander will get the $5.6 million salary he proposed instead of the $5.1 million the team had proposed.
A three-person arbitration panel made its ruling Friday, a day after a four-hour hearing in St. Petersburg, Fla. Minor was the first player the Braves took to an arbitration hearing since John Rocker in 2001.
The pitcher attended the hearing with his agent, B.B. Abbott. They heard the Braves make a case for why Minor didn’t deserve the higher salary figure.
“You never want it to come to that, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought,” said Minor, adding that he came away from the experience with no hard feelings. “They didn’t say anything I didn’t know. It was one of those things, you just take it. They had a good case, we had a good case.
“During the case it gets heated a little bit, but at the end, everybody knows it’s business and the club’s trying to do what they can do to save some money and I’m trying to get more money. So it’s just business.”
Minor officially reported to spring training Friday with other Braves pitchers and catchers, who’ll have their first organized workout Saturday.
Minor, 27, made $3.85 million in 2014 in his first year of arbitration eligibility, and had struggled to a career-worst 6-12 with a 4.77 ERA in 25 starts after missing most of spring training with shoulder tendinitis, an ailment that landed him on the disabled list and caused recurring problems during the season.
With the Braves eliminated from wild-card contention, he was scratched from his last start as a precautionary measure. He said he’s completely healthy now and began his offseason program earlier than usual in December.
“I started earlier, just to make sure everything was good,” Minor said. “I started around Dec. 5 maybe. I usually wait till around Christmastime, but I wanted a couple of weeks to kind of ease into it and make sure everything was good.”
His shoulder became inflamed in the opening week of 2014 spring training when he increased his activities, after being unable to work out in January due to Dec. 31 urinary tract surgery. Minor had shoulder soreness periodically during the season and was held from his last start as a precautionary measure with the Braves eliminated from the wild-card race.
Minor was arguably the Braves’ best pitcher in 2013, going 13-9 with career-best totals in wins, ERA (3.21), strikeouts (181) and innings (204 2/3).
The Braves and Minor failed to reach a contract agreement before last month’s deadline for teams to either do so or swap salary figures with their unsigned arbitration-eligible players. If an arbitration case goes to a hearing, the panel must decide on either of the proposed salaries and no other amount.
Reporting date was Friday, but Minor and many other Braves had been at camp most of the week, working out. In addition to his arbitration hearing, Minor much of his time the past few days getting situated in his spring-training digs with his wife and their first baby, who is four months old.
