This isn’t good news for the Reds budget:
The next Super Two cutoff will require fewer days of service time than usual, MLBTR has learned. Last year’s Super Two cutoff was at two years and 139 days of service time. In previous years, the cutoff was never less than two years and 130 days. However, MLBTR has confirmed with two different team sources that the 2010 cutoff will be two years and most likely 124 days….
The top beneficiary of the reduced Super Two requirement is Reds right fielder Jay Bruce. After this season Bruce will have two years and 125 days, and MLBTR has confirmed he’ll be the Super Two with the least amount of service time. The Reds delayed his MLB debut until May 27th back in 2008, but he’s still going to arbitration four times – starting after this season. Instead of earning $450K in 2011, he’ll get millions.
D’oh! If the Reds had delayed calling up Bruce for another two or three days, they would have avoided this. Unfortunately, there was no way to know that at the time.