A's, Miguel Andujar Avoid Arbitration

The Athletics entered the offseason with five players destined for arbitration, with Brent Rooker, Seth Brown, Miguel Andujar, Austin Adams and Dany Jiménez all due for salary bumps.

The A's essentially non-tendered Jiménez and Adams, then came to terms on a $2.7 million contract for 2025 with Seth Brown. Earlier this week, the A's signed DH/OF Brent Rooker to an extension, eating up his arbitration years entirely. The deal has five guaranteed years at $60 million.

On Thursday, the A's came to terms with Andujar, avoiding arbitration, on a one-year deal worth $3 million, as was first reported by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. MLB Trade Rumors had projected him for $2.8 million earlier this offseason. This will be his final season under team control, as he'll be able to test free agency following the 2025 campaign.

With all of the A's contracts now settled, and the rest of the roster still pre-arb, the payroll projection for the club over at Roster Resource sits at roughly $97 million, still shy of the projected $105 threshold the club needs to reach to avoid a grievance being filed by the MLBPA.

Andujar and Brown figure to be part of a platoon in left field, at least to begin the season, the way the roster is constructed. Andujar missed some time to begin and end the 2024 season, his first with the A's, but in between he played in 75 games and hit .285 with a .320 OBP, good for a 103 wRC+.

Brown was optioned to Triple-A during the season, but got into 124 games and hit .231 with a .283 OBP and 14 home runs, good for a 91 wRC+. He was equally productive against both righties and lefties over the course of the full season, but was a much better hitter in the second half, after returning to the club, posting a 107 wRC+ while hitting .263 with a .304 on-base.