Red Sox avoid arbitration with all players, including Rafael Devers

Ed. Note: A previous version of this story indicated that Rafael Devers and the Red Sox had not agreed to a deal to avoid arbitration. Since the deadline passed, however, the two sides have agreed to a deal.

In a typical baseball calendar, arbitration figures are swapped between teams and players at some point in January, with hearings often coming for those who don’t agree to terms at some point in February. Obviously we do not have a typical baseball calendar this year due to the lockout, and so the deadline for teams and players to exchange arbitration figures was on Tuesday. Boston had five arbitration-eligible players who had yet to agree to a contract — Kevin Plawecki and Ryan Brasier had both agreed to terms well prior to the deadline — and they have agreed to terms with all five.

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The biggest name, and story, for this deadline this year was Rafael Devers, who is in his second year of arbitration. While he and the Red Sox did not agree to terms before today’s 1:00 PM ET deadline, the two sides apparently did continue talking and have since agreed to a deal which will pay him $11.2 million. This is slightly higher than the MLB Trade Rumors projection of $11.1 million. While this is his salary for now for the 2022 season, he and the Red Sox are also still able to discuss a long-term extension as well, though reportedly those talks have not yet begun.

Aside from the Devers news, the Red Sox did indeed avoid arbitration with three players. Alex Verdugo will make $3.55 million, a bit higher than the MLB Trade Rumors projection of $3.2 million. Nick Pivetta, meanwhile, gets a salary of $2.65 million, lower than the projection of $3.2 million. And finally, Josh Taylor, who we recently learned could potentially miss the start of the season with a back issue, will make $1.025 million. That’s a shade lower than the $1.1 million projection. Christian Arroyo, who was also projected for a $1.1 million salary, agreed to a slightly larger deal worth $1.2 million.