Brett Cecil signs one-year, $2.475-million dollar deal with Blue Jays to avoid arbitration

According to a partially-capitalized tweet from CBS Sports' Jon Heyman, left-handed reliever Brett Cecil has avoided arbitration by signing a one-year, $2,475,000 contract with the Blue Jays, a nice raise from the $1.3 million he earned in 2014.

Brett Cecil settles with blue jays for $2.475M

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) January 15, 2015

Cecil, 28, has been outstanding for the Blue Jays since his conversion to a reliever, making the All-Star roster in 2013. The four-eyed lefty was projected to make $2.6 million in arbitration according to MLB Trade Rumors' magical formula. With the departure of Casey Janssen, Cecil is widely viewed as the best reliever out of the Blue Jays bullpen and he looks to be the leading candidate for the closer's role. He is under club control through the end of the 2016 season.

Josh Donaldson, Marco Estrada, Michael Saunders, and Danny Valencia have yet to settle on a figure with the Blue Jays, and they will have until this Friday (tomorrow) before they formally exchange salary figures with the club. It is Blue Jays policy to not continue negotiating one-year contracts after the salary exchange--so if a player fails to settle by tomorrow, they will either go through to an arbitration hearing to decide an amount for a one-year contract or have to sign a longer-tern extension.

The Blue Jays have not needed to attend a salary arbitration hearing since 1997.