Nationals Farm Authority

The MLB arbitration deadline has come and passed and the compensation picture for Alfonso Soriano is much much clearer.

Of the five players remaining ahead of Soriano in the compensation lsiting, only Barry Zito remains unsigned and was offered arbitration. Andy Pettitte, JD Drew, and Bengie Molina were not offered arbitration and Ray Durham resigned with the San Francisco Giants. What this means is the Nationals only need to wait for Zito to sign anywhere but with the Cubs to be assured of Chicago’s 2nd round selection.

Other items of interest:

• The Pittsburgh Pirates did not offer arbitration to Jeromy Burnitz.
• The Orioles did not offer arbitration to Latroy Hawkins who has been rumored to have agreed to a deal with the Colorado Rockies. Given that along with Baltimore’s re-signing of Kevin Millar means the Nationals will pick at #32 in the supplemental first round.
• There are 23 remaining free agents that would require some sort of compensation. Since both Type A and B free agents both return a supplemental pick, this has an impact on the Nationals compensationpick from the Cubs. If all 23 were to sign with other teams (not very likely), the Nationals selection from Chicago would drop to #74 overall.
• Type A (9): Barry Zito, Jason Schmidt, Jeff Suppan, Rich Aurilia, Todd Walker, Roberto Hernandez, Julio Lugo, Tony Graffanino, and Dave Roberts
• Type B (14): Mark Mulder, Ted Lilly, David Wells, Ron Villone, Gil Meche, Vicente Padilla, Chan Ho Park, Jose Guillen, Scott Schoeneweis, Miguel Batista, Keith Foulke, Alan Embree, Ryan Klesko, and Guillermo Mota
• As seen above, only Jose Guillen was offered arbitration by the Nationals. Which means if he signs elsewhere, the Nationals would receive a supplemental first round selection. I believe this means it’s much more likely Guillen will be returning to Washington in 2007. It was surprising to see the Nationals did not offer arbitration to Ramon Ortiz, but it does not necessarily mean he is not returning to the Nationals in 2007. It means the Nationals will not have to concern themselves with Ortiz in the arbitration process, though it also means no compensation if he were to sign elsewhere.