Marcus Stroman arbitration filing

The Blue Jays and Marcus Stroman have filed their arbitration numbers. Marcus is looking for $3.4 million. The Jays filed at $3.1 million. He’s the only Jays arbitration eligible player not to be signed.

The Jays have always been a file and trail team, meaning if they got as far as filing they wouldn’t sign the player to a 1-year contract before the arbitration hearing. They have been willing to sign multi-year contracts to save themselves from the fun of a hearing.

A $300,000 spread between the team’s and the player’s number makes you think they should have been able to compromise, but it is likely that both sides moved their number a bit, wanting to look better for the arbitrator.

I’m hoping the team can find a way to sign him before the hearing, I don’t like the idea of standing in front of an arbitrator, telling a player why he isn’t as good as he thinks he is.