The Cincinnati Reds and Michael Lorenzen have agreed to a 1-year deal worth $3,725,000 for the 2020 season as first reported by Bobby Nightengale of The Cincinnati Enquirer. Today is the day that teams and players must submit their arbitration numbers for the 2020 season. But not everyone is getting to that point, as many players and teams are coming to agreements before the deadline hits and just signing contracts in advance.
As I type this the Cincinnati Reds still have four players that are arbitration eligible: Right-handed pitcher Trevor Bauer, right-handed pitcher Anthony DeSclafani, right-handed pitcher Matt Bowman, and catcher Curt Casali. The team had previously agreed to a 1-year deal with outfielder Travis Jankowski, who would have also been arbitration eligible.
For Michael Lorenzen, the $3,725,000 is quite a bit short of what MLB Trade Rumors had projected that he would get. In their projections he was set to get $4,200,000 – so that’s a $475,000 difference in favor of the Reds on this one.
Lorenzen is coming off of a strong 2019 season with the Reds. The just turned 28-year-old reliever posted a 2.92 ERA in 83.1 innings. He allowed just 68 hits – nine of which were home runs, and he walked 28 batters with 85 strikeouts. At the plate he also homered once and had two doubles. That season was good for 2.4 WAR (Baseball-Reference version) when you account for both the hitting and the pitching. That tops his previous best, which was 2018 when he had 1.4 pitching WAR and 0.7 hitting WAR according to Baseball-Reference.
We’ll continue to update things today as they develop. It’s possible that other players on the above list could also come to agreements with the Reds on deals for 2020. If not, we’ll have a post up this evening on what everyone filed for and break down a little bit of what it could mean for the payroll for the upcoming season depending on how things work out with the arbitrator.
Good for Lorenzen and the Reds. Arbitration can cause relationship issues between player and team and the team downplays a payers value to save salary.
Hopefully more agreements occur today.
If both player and team are happy with the salary, it does not really matter what anyone else thinks or estimates.
Disco, Casali, and Bauer all signed according to MLB TradeRumors
Looks like the Reds and Trevor Bauer have avoided arbitration, it’s reported by Mark Feinsand they agreed on $17.5 mil
Feels like a tiny win that Bauer didn’t push for arbitration, given his previous statements about always wanting to bet on himself and see what he can get. Now get out there and make it look like a steal.
Bauer in a good mood could make a difference for the Reds in terms of contending.
Bauer and his agent likely realized he didn’t have much of a case to win the arbitration. He had a significantly down year.
He got a great deal in arbitration.
Reds are overpaying to try to get a long term deal in place in the future, and not offend the player.
It d make sense considering how much they gave up in prospects to get Bauer, and that they got nothing last year from him.
Let’s just hope Bauer has a strong year. If so, then he re-signs for 1 or more years.
DHud I missed the other two, so than Bowman is the only one left.
I go back to the Frank Robinson days and I got to tell you Michael Lorenzen is quickly moving up the list of my favorite all time reds. I love his attitude and passion for the game. I hope he is a Red for a long time
Seems like a pretty good day for the Reds. Avoid arbitration with 4 players and save about $1 million versus projections in the process. Nice.
Looks like they avoided arbitration with 6 players slightly below the estimates.
I had the opportunity and pleasure to speak to Barry Larkin on the phone today. My friend was at a golf tournament with him. What an absolute professional to take the time. Truly appreciated.
Question. Why would my comment about speaking to Barry Larkin on the phone be rejected?
Could have been by accident in a bulk deletion – we’ve been hit with a lot of spam comments the past few days. I’ll check the trash folder.