On Aug 29, 9:13 am, Colin William <colintwill... RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote:
> In dave O'Brien's blog Hampton says he's "very open" to returning to the
> Braves. I'm pretty sure they're "very open" to no longer having to deal
> with Hampton's injuries. But supposing they were interested, are they
> locked in to having to offer a contract with no more than a 20% pay cut?
> Or is that some old and distorted version of the labor agreement in my mind?
They were never required to anyways. Even under the old CBA, the
Braves could offer whatever contract they would have wanted to Hampton
up until, I want to say 30 days after the start of the FA period but
think it may have been 40. If the Braves wnated to continue
negotiating beyond that 30-day period, they would have had to offer
arbitration, otherwise they wouldn't be able to re-sign Hampton until
May 1 of the next year. If Hampton accepted arbitration (meaning the
team and player are now headed for a hearing), the team could offer no
less than a contract with a 20% pay cut from the year's previous
salary.
It was one of the primary reasons the Blue Jays didn't offer Carlos
Delgado arbitration. If I recall correctly, a series of 1-year
contracts, each at a 20% discount from his original salary would have
wound up being more lucrative than the contract he ultimately got from
Florida. At a minimum, it was awfully close.
All of that is now completely moot, I believe. Well, I'm not entirely
sure if there remains a minimum offer for arbitration. The rule about
negotiating after the deadline is gone, I'm pretty sure.
Jon
>> Stay informed about: Hampton and the Braves