Mum’s the Word on Ortiz and Aceves Arbitration

The mysterious arbitration cases of both David Ortiz and Alfredo Aceves continue to lack progress and now Ben Cherington won’t reveal the dates for the scheduled hearings for both players.

John Paul Mor0si of FOX Sports did report that the Ortiz hearing is scheduled for mid-February while a confirmed timeline on Aceves has not yet been reported.  While a deal can be worked out right up until the arbitration hearing, both players appear to be headed to the dreaded battle of arbitration.

The Alfredo Aceves case is a little puzzling when you look at the numbers.  The team offered him $900,000 while Aceves countered with a one-year deal worth $1.6 million.  The difference is not that great so I find it somewhat surprising that a middle ground has not yet been agreed upon.  A salary of %1.25 would be splitting the difference and yet it’s a fair salary for Aceves who had one great year.  For the club, they’re hoping Aceves can duplicate last season’s success but there is still the skepticism, hence the low offer.  Last year Aceves was one of the best arms the Sox had, going 10-2 with a 2.61 ERA in 114 innings.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this deal got worked out prior to the hearing.  But David Ortiz on the other hand, well, that one is going to take some pretty creative work on Cherington’s part.

The Red Sox offered their DH $12.65, a small, almost insulting raise of 1.2% from his last year’s salary.  Naturally Ortiz countered with a higher number, coming in at $16.5 million.  While it’s easy to surmise that the two sides could have settled somewhere around the $13.5-14 million range, that now appears unlikely as Ortiz is in the drivers seat.

The third party arbitrator will pick one offer with middle ground not being an option.  Cherington’s minuscule raise isn’t likely to be the chosen one when you look at the fine offensive season Ortiz had.  Consider he was an integral part of the Red Sox success and Ortiz’s situation just went from good to great.

It’s hard to say if the details surrounding the dates of the hearings will come out.  They likely will, but only prior to the scheduled hearing.  For now, we’re left with speculating on what will happen and how badly Ben Cherington could potentially lose the Ortiz case.

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