For one Cardinal, thoughts of his upcoming arbitration hearing against the team led to some restless nights a few years ago and, he later acknowledged, bothered him away from the ballpark more than he expected. Another said sitting in the hearing and listening to his faults as “take that on the chin, if you will.â€
The Cardinals on Thursday avoided the sometimes acrimonious experience of an arbitration hearing with the majority of their eligible players.
But not all.
Tommy Edman, the club’s planned everyday center fielder, and the Cardinals could not reach an agreement on his 2024 salary ahead of Thursday’s deadline. The Cardinals have maintained a “file and trial†approach, meaning that once the two sides exchange salary numbers — as they did late Thursday night — they will then let an arbiter determine the salary between figures that are $450,000 apart. The Cardinals filed an offer of $6.5 million for Edman, and his representatives countered with an argument for $6.95 million. The arbiter will decide one or the other, not anywhere in between.
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The only exception the Cardinals make to their “file and trial†approach has been if negotiations can be done a multiyear contract. Tyler O’Neill and the Cardinals attempted to do just that in 2022, and O’Neill said the experience left him sleepless at times. All-Star closer Ryan Helsley lost his arbitration hearing to the Cardinals a year ago, and afterward, Helsley said there were “no hard feelings,†just hard things to hear.
Helsley and newcomer Andrew Kittredge were two of the five players who did reach agreements with the Cardinals on one-year contracts Thursday. Helsley, limited this past season by injury, agreed to a $3.8 million salary, up from $2.15 million, a source described. Acquired last week from the Tampa Bay Rays, Kittredge reached an agreement on a one-year deal worth $2.26 million, according to sources. Center fielder Dylan Carlson reached agreement on a one-year deal worth $2.35 million that, in his first year of arbitration eligibility, nearly triples his salary.
Lefty relievers JoJo Romero and John King also completed one-year deals with the Cardinals. King agreed at a contract close to $1 million, and Romero neared $900,000 with his salary for 2024.
The team announced agreements with five of the six arbitration-eligible players Thursday afternoon.
Finalizing contracts with several arbitration-eligible players gives the Cardinals additional certainty for their payroll. They remain interested in adding a free-agent reliever and kept some of those conversations going even after this past week’s acquisition of Kittredge. The market has a handful of relievers still available who fit the late-inning role and price point the Cardinals are seeking. Cardinals executives, including baseball operations president John Mozeliak and team president Bill DeWitt III, have said they expect the total spending on payroll for the 40-man roster to increase from last season.
Estimating the salaries yet to be finalized for pre-arbitration players, the Cardinals are close to a $170 million payroll for a projected 26-man, opening day roster, according to Post-Dispatch research. That would suggest the ability to budget another bullpen addition.
A flurry of one-year contracts were completed Thursday throughout the majors. After his trade to Boston, O’Neill agreed to a one-year, $5.85 million deal with the Red Sox. Traded earlier this offseason to the Yankees in a blockbuster deal, Juan Soto set records with a one-year, $31.5 million agreement. Both O’Neill and Soto will be free agents at season’s end. A total of 23 arbitration-eligible players did not reach an agreement with their teams ahead of Thursday’s salary swap, and while some of the numbers are close, an increasing number of teams have taken the same approach as the Cardinals: file and go.
It’s been a successful approach for the Cardinals.
Not only has it spurred urgency on both sides to reach an agreement before exchanging salary figures, the Cardinals have also done well in hearings. Their most recent loss in a hearing was to Jack Flaherty in 2021. In 2023, the Cardinals’ argument prevailed in hearings to determine salaries for Helsley and lefty reliever Genesis Cabrera. Cabrera came to an agreement before Thursday’s deadline with his new team, Toronto.
At times, the Cardinals have aimed to avoid a player’s first impression of them being an arbitration hearing. That was the case with Kittredge.
Less than a week after sending outfielder Richie Palacios to Tampa Bay for Kittredge, the Cardinals had to negotiate a deal with the right-hander and do so with the clock ticking toward an arbitration hearing. Kittredge, 33, returned from elbow surgery to throw 11⅔ innings for the Rays this past season. He was an All-Star in 2021 and is two seasons removed from a remarkable season when he ranked in the top 9% for chase rates, walk rates and ground-ball rates. He has walked only five of the past 211 batters he’s faced.
This year was his final year of arbitration eligibility before he can become a free agent in November. His agreement with the Cardinals gives him a raise from $2.075 million.
Romero and King were both eligible for arbitration for the first time in their careers. Helsley, who has a 1.69 ERA in the past two seasons, has one more year of arbitration eligibility remaining.
As a first-year eligible player, Carlson was poised for a significant raise, relatively. The switch-hitting outfielder and former first-round pick was limited by ankle and foot injuries to 76 games this past season. He struggled to a .219 average and a .651 on-base plus slugging percentage when he did play. Carlson went on the injured list with a high ankle sprain in the middle of the season, and he attempted to play through bone spurs that limited the range of motion in his ankle and foot. Carlson had surgery to address the pain and restrictions in the foot, and a healthy offseason has given him a chance to dive into his swing and adjust some of his approach.
The Cardinals have described Carlson as their fourth outfielder as spring training approaches with Edman taking over in center field. Edman has been a finalist for the utility fielder’s Gold Glove Award in each of the past two seasons, and the Cardinals believe he could win a Gold Glove in center field. A lot of his value and arbitration argument will hinge on his versatility and how he’s been one of the top defensive players in the majors the past two seasons and a regular in the Cardinals lineup for three seasons.
In that time, Edman has hit .259 with a .313 on-base percentage and a .708 OPS. He led all middle infielders in defensive runs saved in 2022.
The Cardinals plan for rookie Masyn Winn to seize the starting job at shortstop and that would free Edman to roam center. Carlson will compete for playing time there and even push for regular role in center, especially if Edman has a split-shift role at shortstop.