According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Francisco Cervelli agreed to terms on a one-year, $3.5 million contract for the 2016 season, avoiding arbitration.
Francisco Cervelli is coming off an absolutely wonderful 2015 season where he exceeded all expectations and filled the void left by Russell Martin. Cervelli batted .295/.370/.401/.771 with seven home runs and 43 RBIs and was worth a career high 3.1 wins above replacement. He was also finally able to stay healthy as he played in a career-best 130 games.
Cervelli was projected to get $2.5 million in arbitration by MLB Trade Rumors, so the Pirates opted to pay him an extra million to avoid the arbitration process. By all accounts, Cervelli is still a potential extension candidate and a deal could be done in spring training, as those type of deals have been made the previous two springs with Starling Marte and Josh Harrison.
The Pirates have come to terms with all but two of their arbitration eligible players, as now only Mark Melancon and Tony Watson remain. The duo is projected to make $14.6 million in arbitration. The 1pm deadline has passed, but like the trade deadline, deals can be announced well after the official end time.
Make sure to keep up with all of the Pittsburgh Pirates arbitration news over at our 2016 arbitration tracker.
Thank you for checking out Pirates Breakdown! Please follow us on twitter and jump into the hot stove conversation with us!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
