Avoiding Arbitration

While the Pirates have been extremely quiet as of late, things have sort of picked up as they are avoiding arbitration with a few key pitchers.

First a few days back they agree to terms with Chris Resop on a one year deal to keep him in the Pirate bullpen. Since coming to Pittsburgh, Resop has been quite the find off the scrap heap. He has been that rather valuable go between in the pen that sort of holds things together.

Today it kept going as the Pirates avoided arbitration with both Charlie Morton and Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan gets a rather sizeable jump in salary from $1.4 million to $4.1 million and bonuses. Morton gets $2.44 million for next season, whenever that might start.

It was more than a forgone conclusion that the Pirates would look to keep these players in the fold. I would have thought that there might be an outside shot that Hanrahan would have gone to arbitration, but since the Pirates as a team don't like going to arbitration, it was more than unlikely to happen.