I Hate Arbitration - Dodgers F'ing Buehler

Dodgers have 6 arbitration eligible players this free agency: Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Walker Buehler, Julio Urías, Austin Barnes, and Dylan Floro. We just came to an agreement with 4 of them, Bellinger, Seager, Urias and Floro, meaning Walker Buehler (and Barnes) are headed to a contract dispute with the Dodgers.

Arbitration is ugly and basically means we still have team control, but are at the end of rookie deals and contracts need to be negotiated and agreed upon. If there's no agreement, an arbitrator decides which number is right and both sides have to accept the judgement.

Let's look at Buehler for example. He'd love a long contract, but Dodgers go year-by-year with Arbitration players, so he's asking for a 1-year deal worth $4.15million and Dodgers are saying he's worth $3.3million. WTF are we even talking about here. He's our Opening Day starter, would get the ball in a game 7, probably worth $25mill on the open market and we're haggling over $850,000?! If it goes all the way to court, Dodgers have to stand in front of someone and argue why he's not worth that 850k.

Unfortunately, this isn't about Buehler, like it wasn't about Muncy or Taylor last year, it's about setting a precedent with contracts. Hopefully Buehler doesn't hold any resentment when he's ultimately a free agent after his 4 arbitration years. Fuck Baseball sometimes.