Lincecum Signs and Hart Wins Arbitration

Reportedly at the door of the arbitration hearing room, Tim Lincecum and the Giants reached a deal that guarantees Lincecum $23 million over two seasons.  Lincecum will get $8 million in 2010, $13 million in 2011, and  $2 million signing bonus paid out over the two seasons.

All in all, this is the best deal the Giants could have hoped for.  They lock him up for two years, which prevents Lincecum asking for the moon and the stars again next off-season if he continues to pitch well in 2010, but the Giants aren’t on the hook for too much if he blows his arm out.

Also, taking out the small $2 million dollar signing bonus, they’ll be paying Lincecum what they offered him in arbitration this year, and next year they’ll pay him what he asked for in this year’s arbitration.  Finally, they prevent having to go to arbitration with their face-of-the-franchise player.  Giants’ management has to be pretty relieved.

It’s hard to feel sorry for a twenty-five year old who’s just been guaranteed $23 million over the next two years.  Still, I agree with Keith Law’s statement that Lincecum left money on the table.

Meanwhile, Corey Hart beat the Brewers in their arbitration hearing.  He’ll get $4.8 million in 201o, instead of the $4.15 million the Brewers proposed.

The thing that surprises me the most is the two couldn’t settle their differences before the hearing.  The small separation in the numbers virtually screams that the parties should have reached agreement at $4.4 or 4.5 million.

My guess is that the Brewers felt that Hart really didn’t have that good a season in 2009 (he didn’t), and maybe in the present economic environment and free agent market, they’d have an advantage in the arbitration process.  Obviously, it didn’t turn out that way.

Hart is a real hard guy to predict in terms of his 2010 performance.  He’s still somewhat young at age 28, but his OPS has declined the last two seasons, and he had a hard time staying healthy last season.  Either way, the Brewers can at least be pleased that they’re only on the hook for one season in case the bottom drops out.

Perhaps the Brewers’ biggest mistake was not non-tendering Hart, the way the A’s did with Jack Cust.  The market wasn’t there for Cust, and the A’s ended up signing him for the price they were willing to pay.  However, it would have been a much bigger risk for the Brewers to have non-tendered Hart, given the three year difference in age.