Guardians avoid arbitration with all eligible players

UPDATE (3/22, 4:32 p.m. ET): The Guardians have agreed to deals with Franmil Reyes and Josh Naylor, leaving Shane Bieber as the only arbitration-eligible player unsigned.

UPDATE (3/22, 5:49 p.m. ET): The Guardians have agreed to a deal with Shane Bieber, meaning all arbitration-eligible players are under contract for 2022. Huzzah!

The Cleveland Guardians agreed to deals will seven of their eligible players. The breakdown is as follows, with MLB Trade Rumors estimations in parenthesis.

• Amed Rosario: $4.95 million ($5.0 million)
• Cal Quantrill: $2.51 million ($2.8 million)
• Austin Hedges: $4 million ($3.8 million)
• Bradley Zimmer: $1.3 million ($1.5 million)
• Shane Bieber: $6 million ($4.8 million)
• Franmil Reyes: $4.55 million ($4.4 million)
• Josh Naylor: $1.2 million ($1.2 million)

Essentially, the Guardians came in underneath most expectations with the exception of Shane Bieber. They apparently had no interest in testing what it would have been like to be in the middle of a court process during the regular season and gave him a $5.3 million pay raise from his pre-arb salary last season.

Rosario was the headlining MLB piece of the Francisco Lindor trade last winter and put up a .282/.321/.409 slash in 141 games, playing a mix of outfield and shortstop before settling in the infield and finishing the season strong. He’ll likely be bounced around again if the Guardians don’t make a free-agent move prior to the regular season.

Quantrill has settled in nicely since coming over in the 2020 Mike Clevinger trade. After pitching for the first month of the season out of the bullpen, he earned short starts on May 31 and June 6, then began ramping up as a full-time starter down the stretch. From his June 15 start against the Orioles on, he carried a 2.79 ERA, 19.8% strikeout rate, and 7.4% walk rate in 20 starts.

Also part of the Clevinger deal, Austin Hedges split time with Roberto Pérez last season and is expected to be the starter this year. His bat is virtually nonexistent, but he has the elite framing and pitching staff-handling skills that the Guardians value greatly.