Arbitration In Baseball is Broken

Arbitration is a word that gets thrown around a lot in baseball.  Every off-season you hear about some of your favorite players “going to arbitration” with their respective teams.  But have you ever really thought about what that means?  As far as I know, its a way for owners to disparage their players in closed door meetings without any repercussions for the purpose of paying them less.  Oops.  Not only was I wrong, but reader of NQTC and a personal friend of mine Jeff, along with one of my law school professors, have written a piece that was published in the Harvard Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law recently showing exactly what arbitration is and why its terrible in its current incarnation.  Here’s a small excerpt from the introduction to whet your appetite: When the 2008 Major League Baseball (“MLB”) season ended, New York Yankees star outfielder Bobby Abreu became a free agent.1 Although Abreu was an established star able to negotiate with all of the b...