The Orioles entered Thursday’s deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to agree on 2024 contracts, with
13 players yet to sign. When the 1pm deadline came and went, the team had reached agreements with at least eight of
them.
Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb’s contracts remain unresolved. Later Thursday, MLB Network’s Joel Sherman
claimed that there was also no agreement with Cionel Pérez, and The Baltimore Sun’s Jacob Calvin Meyer stated that
the team did not agree with Austin Hays or Ryan O’Hearn.
The contract deadline was initially slated for Friday. Late on Wednesday, it was announced that the league and the
players’ union had agreed to shift it to today instead. It’s strange, yet it doesn’t change much. This is one of those
processes where the deadline drives practically all of the effort, thus the modification simply triggered a frenzy of
action today rather than tomorrow.
In most cases, players become eligible for salary arbitration after three years of service, which means they get three
years of arbitration pay before becoming free agents. Players are given raises based on how well they have done in
comparison to other players with comparable service time.
Except for seasons missed due to injury, there is normally a slight rise. Means, for example, will earn around
$350,000 more than in 2023 after just four starts. If he hadn’t needed Tommy John surgery, he could be earning
$10 million or more now. That is not how things have turned out.
Some players, such as Santander for the Orioles, reach “Super Two” status, which means they are eligible after two or
more years. Consider this when their two-plus years approach three years. These people go on to four years of
arbitration instead of three, so their pay have the potential to grow higher. Wells, who is entering his first year of
arbitration this season, is also a Super Two.
