The entire baseball arbitration process is brutally awkward. If an eligible player and team cannot agree on a salary for the upcoming season, they each submit fixed offers to an independent number cruncher, and rather than that independent number cruncher deciding exactly how much that player should be payed, he decides between the two offers based on the arguments presented.
Essentially, said number cruncher gets to watch both parties suggest how wrong each other is, respectively, and then side with one over the other. Sets quite the stage for a working relationship, no?
Well, on Wednesday new Cincinnati Reds pitcher Alex Wood officially found out how much he’ll be earning during the 2019 season, as the arbiter sided with him over his new employer, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported earlier.