Why the Colorado Rockies are ruining their chance to keep Nolan Arenado

An arbitration hearing is something that you never hope to go through as a player, or a front office manager. Why? Because they have to potential to torch relationships. For those of you not aware of how it works, I’ll explain it in the simplest way possible.

When a player and a team cannot come to an agreement on the amount of money a player will receive in the upcoming season, they sometimes go to an arbitration hearing and each side argues what they believe they deserve and why. Well, if the team doesn’t agree with the amount the player thinks they deserve, then the only way to argue that they deserve less is to bring to light the faults of a player. Well, If that player just so happens to be the most talented player to ever wear your uniform and there was already doubt that said player may not re-sign but you want to make the best impression possible on him staying it would probably be wise to give said player what he wants, right?

Yeah, you do. The Colorado Rockies and superstar third baseman Nolan Arenado were heading towards an arbitration hearing and earlier in the offseason they appeared to be discussing, or beginning to discuss, a long-term contract extension that would keep Nolan in Denver for many years to come. And then, once arbitration eligible players started getting their money figured out, there was one player that lagged behind. That player was Nolan Arenado.

So when Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported that Nolan and the Rockies were $6 million — $6 MILLION (!) — apart in negotiations, where Nolan wanted $30 and the Rockies were offering $24 million.

Then, last week, The Denver Post‘s Patrick Saunders reported that the two sides were likely heading to a hearing, my heart sank. So when the news dropped that Nolan and the Rockies had avoided a hearing, it couldn’t have been better news. I’ve heard stories from athletes about how awful salary arbitration hearings are and how brutal they can be.

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The first one that comes to mine is the one I heard on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast that was about Colorado Avalanche star defenseman, Tyson Barrie. Barrie reportedly had a frayed relationship with former Avs coach Patrick Roy and when Barrie and the Avs went to an arbitration hearing back in 2016 it got hostile, and the team apparently ripped Barrie apart in the hearing, and Roy didn’t even really want him on the team in general.

Well, the Avalanche went against Roy’s wishes and gave Barrie a contract extension, and in turn about two weeks after Barrie signed the extension, Roy resigned. The team obviously thought of Barrie a little different than Roy did, and Roy left for more reasons than just that, but the hearing gave Roy an opportunity to bring to light the flaws of Barrie, almost making him feel unwanted.

With the Rockies and Nolan settling at $26 million, I put together a list of the players that currently will make over $24 million, the original number the Rockies had offered, and you can see why Nolan asked for $30 in the first place. According to Spotrac.com, these are the players that are set to make equal to or greater than $24M in 2019 in terms of average annual value (AAV).

Zack Greinke SP, $34,416,667
David Price SP, $31,000,000
Miguel Cabrera IF, $31,000,000
Clayton Kershaw SP, $31,000,000
Max Scherzer SP, $30,000,000
Yoenis Cespedes OF, $27,500,000
Jon Lester SP, $25,833,333
Justin Verlander SP, $25,714,286
Felix Hernandez SP, $25,000,000
Stephen Strasburg SP, $25,000,000
Jake Arrieta SP, $25,000,000
Giancarlo Stanton OF/DH, $25,000,000
Mike Trout OF, $24,083,333
Robinson Cano IF, $24,000,000
Albert Pujols IF/DH, $24,000,000

Keep in mind, again, this is based on AAV, so this may not be the player’s exact salary for this upcoming season, but based on the contract that they signed this is the average salary.

First off, I think the biggest thing we can take out of this is that some of these contracts are incredibly bad, wow, but the most important thing is that Nolan Arenado is as valuable or more to a franchise than almost all these players save, Trout, Scherzer, Kershaw, Verlander, and maybe Price. But, besides Mike Trout, all those players on that short list are pitchers and play at most maybe 34 times a season, and Nolan has average 158 games his last four seasons.

Nolan is not Eric Hosmer, and the Rockies need to get it through their head that this player they have is not just a great player, he is a generational player, and deserves to be compensated as such.

I understand that this is arbitration, and a player has never been given this much money, but that’s where the league is going. If players aren’t going to get long contracts, them average salaries are going to skyrocket, just like the NBA. If reigning American League MVP Mookie Betts is not locked up by the Boston Red Sox before next offseason you can all but guarantee that he will break the $26 million mark that Nolan got. Betts got $20 million in just his second arbitration eligible season in January.

This shouldn’t have been a fight, and for some reason, it kind of was. You have a perennial MVP candidate and the only reason he doesn’t have at least one MVP award is because he plays for the Rockies at Coors Field.

I really hope that this odd ploy by management to let Nolan know that they are in charge doesn’t come back to bite the Rockies, because I know if they had gone to a hearing the chances of re-signing him would have been in the toilet, in my opinion.

So now that this is over, let’s hope that everyone can put their egos aside for a bit and get the best third baseman in baseball paid what he deserves so that he can be a Rockie for life.