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A Hearing a Day - Wandy Rodriguez

By Rick Karcher, Michael McCann, Geoffrey Rapp, Greg Skidmore, and Howard Wasserman

The Houston Astros and pitcher Wandy Rodriguez held baseball?s fifth hearing of the year today. The Astros offered Rodriguez $5,000,000 while the pitcher requested $7,000,000. The gap of $2,000,000 demonstrates a significant disagreement between the two parties over the lefty?s value. The midpoint is $6,000,000. Rodriguez was paid $2,600,000 in 2009 after exchanging figures with Houston ($3,000,000-$2,250,000), and he is in the service group of players between four and five years. Four of the strongest starters in this group signed multi-year contracts: Felix Hernandez (Seattle), Edwin Jackson (Arizona), Josh Johnson (and Justin Verlander (Detroit). The one-time star of this group, Chien-Ming Wang just signed a $2,000,000 deal with Washington this week. Joe Blanton (Philadelphia), who just barely made it into the service group with over five years, also signed a multi-year deal.

The panel was Richard Bloch, Elizabeth Neumeier and Fredric Horowitz. Bloch is a very experienced arbitrator with a significant pro-team record. Rodriguez was 14-12 last season with a fine 3.02 ERA and a career high strikeout total of 193. His career won-loss log is 51-52. Again, I will post more in the comments section.

Full post as published by Sports Law Blog on February 17, 2010 (boomark / email).