Jordy Mercer, Pirates avoid arbitration with one-year deal

Jordy Mercer and the Pittsburgh  Pirates avoid arbitration by agreeing on a 1-year/$2.075 Million deal

According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Jordy Mercer agreed to a one-year, $2.075 million deal, thereby avoiding arbitration.

The Pirates now have four players that are still eligible for arbitration this off-season: Francisco Cervelli, Mark Melancon, Tony Watson, and Jared Hughes. Those four are projected to earn $19.3 million via arbitration, according to MLB Trade Rumors.

Mercer was projected by MLBTR to make $1.8 million in arbitration, so the Pirates didn’t seem to really overpay for Mercer with this deal. Mercer was entering his first year of arbitration eligibility, so he still has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining in 2017 and 2018.

Yesterday, the Pirates settled with Jeff Locke and agreed on an extension with Chris Stewart, avoiding arbitration with those two players as well.

Mercer will be the starting shortstop for the Pirates in 2016. After taking over the starting role from Clint Barmes in 2014, Mercer ended the 2014 season on a hot streak. Unfortunately, a slow start and an injury led to a down year for Mercer in 2015, where he finished with a .244/.293/.320 line and only three home runs; essentially, he was a replacement-level player. Mercer is above-average defensively, and had no throwing errors in 2014. If he doesn’t start slow in 2016, he could be a productive offensive shortstop.

Make sure to keep up with all of the Pirates’ arbitration news over at our 2016 arbitration tracker.

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