The Boston Red Sox have turned their eyes to the offseason.
It’s earlier than they would’ve liked, but they were swept out of the AL Wild Card Series by the New York Yankees, and so now they’ve got to think about what the 2027 campaign will look like.
There’s one area where the Red Sox have the potential to be particularly busy in the offseason — whenever it can begin in earnest after a potential lockout — and that’s salary arbitration.
They’ll have a whopping 17 players up for salary arbitration, if they choose to tender them contracts.
One of the biggest names on that list is Wilyer Abreu, and MLB Trade Rumors writer Matt Swartz has projected values for all the Boston arbitration eligible players.
For Abreu, the number comes out to be quite the bargain.
Wilyer Abreu Contract Projection
The MLBTR projection for Abreu’s salary for the 2027 season comes in at $4.6 million.
For a player with the power, glove and throwing arm of Abreu, it certainly seems like a massive bargain.
That doesn’t consider everything that goes into arbitration, though.
Each player that reaches the major leagues via the minor leagues has six years of club control once they reach the majors.
The first three years have a salary based on the collective bargaining agreement, and they’re considered the pre-arbitration years.
Years four through six of a player’s time with a team are the arbitration years. In each of those offseasons, a player is eligible to go to salary arbitration to determine what he’s paid the following season.
The arbitration process features the team submitting a value and the player submitting one, and the independent arbitrator comes to a conclusion on which one wins out.
Teams and players these days often negotiate in advance to avoid actually going to what can be a contentious hearing, but the value they come out with will still end up close to what it would’ve been in arbitration.
All that said, it matters which year a player is in for the sequence — and this is only Abreu’s first arbitration year. Generally, the first arbitration year comes with the lowest salaries, and they rise in each of the two subsequent years, even if the player is viewed as having exactly the same value each season.
So for Abreu, no matter what he did this season, he wasn’t going to end up with a giant arbitration value.
The Red Sox could always look to give him a higher-paying contract extension and buy out some of his eventual free agent years, but for now, Abreu is headed for arbitration.
Other Red Sox in Arbitration
The list of 17 Red Sox heading to salary arbitration is long.
The full list is: Tanner Houck, Johan Oviedo, Adley Rutschman, Jarren Duran, Eli White, Kutter Crawford, Connor Wong, Romy Gonzalez, Triston Casas, Andruw Monasterio, Zack Kelly, Greg Weissert, Wilyer Abreu, Erik Miller, Justin Slaten, Jahmai Jones and Tyron Guerrero.
If a team chooses not to tender a player a contract, they instead go right to free agency.
Red Sox’s Wilyer Abreu Gets Shocking Bargain $4.6 Million Contract Update