Blue Jays have three players eligible for salary arbitration

The Toronto Blue Jays have three rostered players eligible for salary arbitration this offseason.

The trio of Teoscar Hernandez, Travis Shaw, and Ross Stripling are the only Blue Jays eligible for salary arbitration. MLB Trade Rumors recently released its projected earnings for all eligible players around the majors.

Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors categorized the projected earnings into three methods.

Method 1: Applies model directly with actual statistics from this 60-game season.
Method 2: Extrapolates all counting stats to would-be 162-game totals.  One home run becomes 2.7 home runs.
Method 3: For non-first-time eligibles, finds the raise they’d get in a 162 game season, then gives them 37% of that raise.

Utilizing the above three methods, this is where the eligible Blue Jays sit in regards to their potential arbitration windfall for the upcoming campaign.

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Teoscar Hernandez – $2.7MM / $5.3MM / $2.7MM
Travis Shaw – $4.2MM / $5.4MM / $4.5MM
Ross Stripling – $2.5MM / $3.7MM / $2.7MM

Hernandez is the one player who should benefit the greatest this season following a breakout year albeit in a shortened season. The outfielder made just $602,200 this past season, and could really cash in if his stats are prorated over the course of a 162 game season as suggested in Method 2.

The 28-year old swatted 16 home runs while slashing .289/.340/.579 with a 1.3 WAR in 50 games. Hernandez was tied for fourth in the American League in homers while also ranking seventh in slugging percentage.

Travis Shaw is an interesting case and an argument could be made for Shaw to be a non-tender candidate. The infielder struggled at times offensively again hitting .239/.306/.411with six round-trippers in 50 games.

The 28-year old earned $4 million last season and is in line for a small raiser, however, could the allotted $5 million for Shaw be better spent elsewhere. In saying that the Blue Jays do not have a ton of third base options and it appears Jordan Groshans will not be major league ready out of spring training next year.

Toronto will keep Ross Stripling in the fold as he can be a valuable swingman either as a starter or a reliever. Stripling earned $600,000 last season and will once again be cheap enough to keep around. The 30-year old struggled in five appearances with the Blue Jays following the trade posting a 6.32 earned run average in 15.2 innings of work.

Ross Atkins and company have the fewest arbitration-eligible players of any team in the majors this offseason. In contrast, the Pittsburgh Pirates have 19 eligible players to come to terms with this offseason.