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In case the Brusdar Graterol thing isn’t enough drama for you, it was announced today that Jose Berrios lost his arbitration case with the Twins and will settle for $4.025 million in 2020. Here is the original report from Jon Heyman:
Jose Berrios lost his Arb case. 4.025M
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 6, 2020
The immediate twitter reaction from fans including myself was that this was a mistake by the Twins, but after a bit more waiting it turns out everything will be perfectly fine. Berrios wanted $4.4 million, but possibly as a statement—it would have been a huge victory for similar players if he won.
From talking to both sides on this — Berríos would have achieved a huge victory for similar players if he won. The extra $400,000 was an attempt to establish a new standard. He’s getting paid top dollar even though he lost.
— Dan Hayes (@DanHayesMLB) February 6, 2020
Cleveland’s Mike Clevinger, who is probably better than Berrios, got a $4.1 million deal at the same stage of arbitration. When looked at like that, this deal for Berrios makes sense. Basically what I’m saying here is don’t freak out over this because neither side should have any hard feelings, and it shouldn’t change the Twins relationship with their best home-grown pitcher since Johan Santana.