Brewers 2023 Arbitration Rundown: No Deal Yet for Corbin Burnes

The date to come to an agreement with arbitration-eligible players has passed. The Milwaukee Brewers came into the deadline with 11 players who were arbitration eligible, and they were able to avoid arbitration by signing a one-year contract with 10 of them.

The 10 one-year deals that the Brewers agreed to:

• Willy Adames – $8.7 million
• Victor Caratini – $2.8 million
• Keston Hiura – $ 2.2 million
• Rowdy Tellez – $4.95 million
• Abraham Toro – $1.25 million
• Luis Urías – $4.7 million
• Hoby Milner – $1.025 million
• Devin Williams – $3.35 million
• Brandon Woodruff – $10.8 million

The vast majority of these players are set to go through arbitration at least one more time after this year, while Victor Caritini will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2023 season. Also, earlier in the offseason, the Brewers came to terms with Mike Brosseau, Matt Bush, and Adrian Houser, meaning that these players will not go through arbitration.

The one player who the Brewers did not come to terms with is ace Corbin Burnes. According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, Burnes filed his 2023 salary to be $10.75 million, while the Brewers filed for $10.01 million. Both Milwaukee and Burnes will each come up with a new salary to be presented, which will then be sent to three arbitrators during Spring Training. After each party argues their case, the arbitrators will select one of the salaries that the player will then receive for that year. More about the arbitration process can be found at MLB.com using this link.

The nature of arbitration is inherently messy. The reality is that you are putting the team and the player against each other and arguing over how much a player should be making. Essentially, the team is giving reasons why its player should be paid less. While it does not seem like there is any bad blood between Burnes and the Brewers, it seems like a thin line to walk as they try not to upset the player. We will have to see how Burnes and the Brewers attempt to make up the roughly $750,000 difference between the two parties.