Brewers ink Martin Maldonado to two year deal

As I wrote about earlier this week, the deadline for players and teams to exchange arbitration figures is Friday. As anticipated the Brewers and Martin Maldonado have agreed to terms thereby avoiding the arbitration process. Perhaps somewhat unexpected, though certainly not unprecedented, the two sides have agreed to a two year contract.

This is Martin Maldonado's first arbitration year. Having attained Super 2 status, that means the Brewers still have a total of 4 years of team control over him. In turn, that means there are still two more years of arbitration after this 2 year deal is complete. By signing this contract the team essentially locks in Maldonado's price for the next two years. Cost certainty is definitely a nice thing to have, especially for a team that operates in baseball's smallest market.

At the start of the off season I had projected Maldonado to receive $750,000. According to Adam McCalvy, Maldonado will make $850,000 in 2015 and $1.1 million in 2016. Even though his 2015 is marginally more expensive than I had predicted, Maldonado's salary for 2016 is less than I would have expected. This strikes me as an excellent deal for the Brewers and a perfectly acceptable deal for Maldonado.

He has never been much of an offensive threat aside from the random home run. His defense is top notch though. As a back-up catcher he was never going to make tons of money, but I did think there was an outside chance he would start to make more money than was worth it to keep him on the roster. That is no longer a concern.

Here is an updated payroll projection with Maldonado's salary reflected: