The Oakland Athletics announced that relief pitcher Brad Ziegler and outfielder Travis Buck have each earned Super Two arbitration status this offseason. Simply put, this means Ziegler and Buck earned enough playing time with the A’s to gain a fourth year of arbitration, instead of the usual three.
More specifically, arbitration and super two are described as follows:
A player with three or more years of service, but less than six years, may file for salary arbitration. In addition, a player can be classified as a “Super Two” and be eligible for arbitration with less than three years of service. A player with at least two but less than three years of Major League service shall be eligible for salary arbitration if he has accumulated at least 86 days of service during the immediately preceding season and he ranks in the top 17 percent in total service in the class of Players who have at least two but less than three years of Major League service, however accumulated, but with at least 86 days of service accumulated during the immediately preceding season.
Normally a player entering his third season gets the normal minimal bump in salary keeping him in the mid six figures. Brad Ziegler and Travis Buck both earned $410,000 last season. Had they not been classified as Super Two, they would have received a slight raise but not much more than that.
I would imagine that Ziegler will have no problem getting his arbitration with the Athletics given his quality work thus far. He’s an effective reliever and the bullpen is part of the core of this team.
On the other hand, Travis Buck could very well be non-tendered given his struggles thus far. Buck was quite solid his rookie season, hitting .288 with 7 homeruns and 22 doubles. However, injuries have slowed his progress and in reality he’s regressed each season since 2007. The A’s have a variety of outfield prospects and it’s questionable whether they would want to invest additional money in Buck. I could see them attempting to work out a one year deal and if that did not work, then cutting him loose and moving forward.
The Oakland A’s other arbitration eligible players are:
OF Rajai Davis
RP Joey Devine
RP Craig Breslow
SP Dallas Braden
OF Ryan Sweeney
3B Kevin Kouzmanoff
OF/IF Conor Jackson
OF/DH Jack Cust