One by one the Nationals are avoiding the arbitration process with the players eligible. Yesterday, the Nats and Tim Redding agreed on contract terms. Redding received a one-year $1 million deal with additional bonuses if he pitches more than 180 innings. Tim’s performance last year was a pleasant surprise, he really stepped up when so many of our starters fell to injury. He was called up in July and went 3-6 with a 3.64 ERA. We are excited to have him back next year, and are interested to see what Spring Training will bring for the rotation.

As of now, the Nationals still have two players eligible for arbitration, Jon Rauch and Felipe Lopez. It sounds like the Nats had been trying to work with Rauch on a deal but nothing has been agreed on yet. It’s all quiet on the Felipe Lopez front, although we’ve heard he is expected to compete with Guzman for a starting position during Spring Training. We’d love for Felipe to prove himself, and have the kind of amazing season we all know he can have.

Less than a month to go now!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 9:39 am and is filed under Contracts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.