Good morning class, and welcome to "Arbitration 101: What Is It and Why Should I Give a Firetruck?" I'll be your professor, and no, there won't be a test at the end of this session.

So you may be asking yourself, "What is arbitration, and why should I give a firetruck?" Well, I'm glad you asked! It's a fascinating subject and when I get bored of beating around the bush, I'll actually answer your questions!

What is arbitration?

Arbitration is a process by which players and owners can negotiate a contract for a more fair compensation. The process is only available to players who have:

• between 3 and 6 years of MLB service (or are a Super Two player - a player between 2 and 3 years of service in the top 22% of time spent)
• been "tendered" a contract by his current team by the tender deadline
• disagreed with his team on the terms of the contract

Simple, right? A player is eligible for arbitration if they're not eligible for free agency, they've been offered a contract by their team before the deadline, and they disagree with the amount of money they'd be making.

Arbitration works by allowing players who disagree with their tendered contract to file for arbitration, at which point both the player and their team have three days to submit proposals for a fair price to the arbitrator. The two parties can continue negotiating until the date of their arbitration hearing, and can come to an agreement at any point until then. If the process reaches the arbitration hearing, however, the arbitration panel will decide and both parties must accept the outcome.

In a simpler form:

No questions, please, wait until the end of the session.

The purpose of arbitration is a compromise between teams and players. Owners want to have some control over their investments in young players, without having to pay ludicrous amounts for the ones that end up being Mike Trout. Players want to be able to have some recourse to make sure that they don't get shafted by their team if they end up being Mike Trout. Arbitration is this common ground. It allows a third party to (ideally) impartially judge the contributions of a player to his team and decide on a fair value for those contributions.

Why should I give a firetruck?

Because it's only January.

Arbitration 2014

Congratulations on completing the introductory course, and welcome to the important part - the players involved and how they stack up. And in this section, unlike that boring and drawn-out last section, I'm not going to ramble. Let's skip right to the action:

WHO FILED FOR ARBITRATION?

LOS ANGELES ANGELS OF ANAHEIM

HOUSTON ASTROS

OAKLAND ATHLETICS

TORONTO BLUE JAYS

CLEVELAND INDIANS

SEATTLE MARINERS

BALTIMORE ORIOLES

TEXAS RANGERS

TAMPA BAY RAYS

BOSTON RED SOX

KANSAS CITY ROYALS

DETROIT TIGERS

MINNESOTA TWINS

CHICAGO WHITE SOX

NEW YORK YANKEES

ATLANTA BRAVES

MILWAUKEE BREWERS

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

CHICAGO CUBS

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

LOS ANGELES DODGERS ^{of los angeles}

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

MIAMI MARLINS

NEW YORK METS

WASHINGTON NATIONALS

SAN DIEGO PADRES

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

PITTSBURGH PIRATES

CINCINNATI REDS

COLORADO ROCKIES

I'll post more in a comment below.

TL;DR: ARBITRATIONNNNNNN^NNNNNN