Athletics, Josh Reddick avoid arbitration

The Athletics avoided arbitration with right fielder Josh Reddick, settling for $4.1 million, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, just prior to exchanging salary demands today. Reddick earns a $1.4 million, or 52% raise over his 2014 salary of $2,700,000. Reddick had four years, 50 days service time and this was his second arbitration year. In 2014, Reddick was the last player to reach an agreement to settle with the Athletics.

Reddick also receives a standard incentives package:

Incentives for #Athletics OF Josh Reddick: $100K for WS MVP, $50K for LCS MVP, $50K for GG, $50K ASG, $100K Silver Slugger, $100K MVP

— Mike Perchick (@TheREALPerchick) January 17, 2015

Reddick's salary is $400,000 above the estimate predicted by both myself and Matt Swartz. I compared Reddick favorably with Jason Heyward's second arbitration year, where he dealt with injury but also had an excellent defensive campaign:

Reddick's 3.5 bWAR over 109 games [in 2014] compares rather neatly with Jason Heyward, doesn't it? And the old school peripherals that an arbitration panel will look at are similar. Both are past Gold Glove winners, both dealt with injuries in the year entering arbitration and previous injuries.

Players that have not yet reached agreements to avoid arbitration were due to exchange salary figures with their clubs at 10 am Pacific Time Friday. The A's have seven remaining arbitration cases to settle: