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2009 Arbitration Season Ends with Settlement

By Rick Karcher, Michael McCann, Geoffrey Rapp, Greg Skidmore, and Howard Wasserman

The Washington Nationals and Ryan Zimmerman settled early this morning prior to their scheduled hearing at the midpoint figure of $3,325,000. So, the players prevailed in 2 of the 3 hearings this season and that marks the first time since 1996, when the players won 7 of the 10 hearings, that the players defeated the teams in arbitration. For the record, there have now been 487 hearings, and the teams have won 280 and the players 207. Teams are ahead in percentage, 57% to 43%. That is a 1 percentage point change from last year (58%-42%).

I went 0-3 in predictions. I was just as poor at this as I was with my 2 fantasy football teams this past season.

The final tally on the 43 settled cases:

Multiyear deals - 11
Above the midpoint - 5
Midpoint - 11
Below the midpoint - 16

Full post as published by Sports Law Blog on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).