The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner was among 54 players who exchanged figures with their teams, and his request fell short of the record $22 million requested by Roger Clemens from Houston when he became a free agent and accepted the Astros’ arbitration offer before the 2005 season.
Interrupting the frenzied focus on money, there were two notable injury announcements.
Detroit said star slugger Victor Martinez could miss the entire season after tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament last week during offseason conditioning.
“After you feel sorry for yourself for a day or so, you move on,” general manager Dave Dombrowski said. “We have a good club. We’ve got a lot of players who will step up.”
Boston outfielder Carl Crawford had surgery on his left wrist Tuesday and could miss opening day. He was bothered by the wrist last season, and felt discomfort as he intensified pre-spring training workouts.
Case in point: Tim Lincecum's reps and the San Francisco Giants were required to submit their suggested salaries for the pitcher's services in 2012 on Tuesday afternoon. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that Tiny Tim's guys said they felt the two-time Cy Young Award winner should be paid $21.5 million to throw a baseball next season. The Giants said they felt that $17 million was more of a fair figure. Either one would count as a very nice raise, of course: Lincecum made $13 million in 2011.
Now, don't get me wrong here. The above details do make for a worthwhile headline. Both amounts shatter the figures that were requested by Derek Jeter ($18.5 million) and the New York Yankees ($14.25 million) in 2001.
But just like the Captain and the Yanks — who settled on a 10-year, $189 million extension 11 years ago — it looks like Lincecum and the Giants will settle long before an arbitrator is ever forced to pick one number or the other. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Giants are comfortable with both numbers and confident that they can find a resolution before an arbitration hearing in February. Both sides were able to avoid arbitration the first time Lincecum was eligible, settling on a two-year, $21 million deal in 2010, just minutes before the arbitrator showed up to hear their cases.
Now it looks like history is repeating itself with the Giants already open to hammering out a one- or two-year deal in the coming weeks. Lincecum will hit the free agent market after the 2013 season.
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