Eight of the arbitration eligible players for the Boston Red Sox have already reached agreements, leaving Fernando Abad as the only one from that group still in contract limbo.
Under Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, players with at least three years of service time at the big league level but less than six are eligible for salary arbitration. The process allows players to negotiate their salary for the upcoming season based on factors that include performance and experience.
These players are still under team control, so there are no other teams bidding against them, but they do have a bit more leverage than the pre-arbitration eligible players that typically make just above the league minimum.