Mark Melancon's Arbitration....How much of a bite will it take out of the PBC Payroll?
Melancon is a first year eligible salary arbitration relief pitcher. In this post I will examine how other similar relief pitchers who were first year salary arbitration eligible have done in the past 3 years. I have posted their statistics from the year before the arbitration and their career numbers up to that point.
When looking at the other players keep in mind Melancon's 2013 and career stats.
2013 71INNS 1.39ERA 0.96WHIP 8.9K/9 16Saves 2.0WAR
Career 228INNS 3.24ERA 1.17WHIP 8.3K/9 37Saves 2.5WAR
2011
Craig Breslow 1.4M
2010 74INNS 3.01ERA 1.10WHIP 8.6K/9 5Saves 1.2WAR
Career 219INNS 2.87ERA 1.17WHIP 7.8K/9 6Saves 4.3WAR
Hanny 1.4M
2010 69INNS 3.62ERA 1.20WHIP 12.9K/9 6Saves 1.3WAR
Career 269INNS 4.45ERA 1.50WHIP 10.3K/9 20Saves 1.1WAR
Clay Hensley 1.4M
2010 75INNS 2.16ERA 1.10WHIP 9.2K/9 7Saves 2.6WAR
Career 398INNS 3.72ERA 1.35WHIP 6.4K/9 7Saves 4.8WAR
2012
David Robertson 1.6M
2011 66INNS 1.08ERA 1.12WHIP 13.5K/9 1Saves 4.0WAR
Career 202INNS 3.03ERA 1.34WHIP 12.0K/9 3Saves 5.5WAR
Sergio Romo 1.575M
2011 48INNS 1.50ERA 0.85WHIP 10.2K/9 1Saves 1.9WAR
Career 178INNS 2.33ERA 0.89WHIP 10.8K/9 3Saves 4.9WAR
Jason Motte 1.95M
2011 68INNS 2.25ERA 1.04WHIP 8.3K/9 9Saves 1.3WAR
Career 188INNS 2.92ERA 1.13WHIP 9.0K/9 12Saves 3.0WAR
2013
Wilton Lopez 1.76M
2012 66INNS 2.17ERA 1.04WHIP 7.3K/9 10Saves 2.3WAR
Career 222INNS 3.15ERA 1.21WHIP 6.8K/9 10Saves 3.7WAR
Bobby Parnell 1.70M
2012 68INNS 2.49ERA 1.23WHIP 8.0K/9 7Saves 1.4WAR
Career 256INNS 3.83ERA 1.46WHIP 8.3K/9 14Saves 1.1WAR
Johnny Venters 1.62M
2012 58INNS 3.22ERA 1.57WHIP 10.6K/9 0Saves 0.4WAR
Career 229INNS 2.23ERA 1.24WHIP 10.1K/9 6Saves 4.6WAR
It looks like the salary arbitration numbers for the first year eligible late inning relievers (7th and 8th inning) has been increasing from 1.4M in 2011 to about 1.7M last year. I would expect a similar bump up this year. I would also expect with Melancon's 37 career saves will put him at a slightly higher level as well. I expect that Melancon will get about 2M for next year.