Tyler Stephenson wins arbitration case as players go 2-0 vs. Reds
GOODYEAR, Arizona – The Cincinnati Reds got their last orders of business resolved on the eve of their first official baseball business this week when catcher Tyler Stephenson was awarded $6.8 million by virtue of winning his arbitration case.
HIs victory makes Reds players 2-0 in their cases, including last week’s victory by reliever Graham Ashcraft ($1.75 million).
It was the first time in recent memory the team had gone to hearings with more than one player – first with anyone in four years. And the Reds hadn’t lost a case since 2019.
“You always hope it would come out on this side. I’m glad it’s over,” said Stephenson, who had braced for what often is described as a bitter process as players are forced to listen to a team representative argue why they don’t deserve the salaries they seek.
“It was better than what I was prepared for,” Stephenson said. “Everybody’s got a different experience. I was prepared for worse. Maybe I was just thinking it was going to be worse in my mind. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought.”
MLB arbitration process
MLB has formalized the process in more recent years and pressured teams to hold the line firm on what the league’s analytics suggest is a winnable floor for an offer in a given case.
Consequently, the Reds went to hearings despite being $500,000 apart with Ashcraft and $250,000 apart with Stephenson.
“It’s definitely a lot mentally going in there and hearing people kind of talk down about your career and things that you’ve done when you know you’ve done more than what they say,” said Ashcraft, whose case was unique because he was a starting pitcher until converting to leverage bullpen work last season, providing no clear apples-to-apples comps for either side to make a case.
“You definitely have to go in there and try to take it with a chip on your shoulder and know how to process the information you get from the team and from the other sources,” he said, “and be able to say, ‘I’m going to take this and use it for myself and not hold it against myself.’ “
Ashcraft said that means both being open to what he might have to work on but also using the “chip” on his shoulder as motivation in the areas he’s more confident he’s already succeeding – “and double down on my strengths and show them the reason that I am good at this.”
Graham Ashcraft and Tyler Stephenson arbitration history
Both players went through the hearing process for the first time.
“Going into it you hear a lot of different things. You don’t really know what to expect, so you look at it one way or the other,” Ashcraft said. “And when certain things get brought up, it kind of shocks you just because you know the team you play for doesn’t necessarily see things that way.”
That’s a big reason manager Terry Francona and executives such as team president Nick Krall and general manager Brad Meador stayed in regular communication with the players through the filing process and leading up to the hearings.
“That’s the business part of baseball. It’s not that fun. And you don’t ever want it to get in the way of baseball,” Francona said. “So I made sure I talked to both of them multiple times, and I also know Brad and Nick did, too, which I really appreciate.
“I don’t know if I love the system,” Francona added, “but that’s what it is.”
Whatever chapped feelings might have resulted from the cases made against them, winning helped.
“After going through it and coming out on top, it makes it that much sweeter,” said Ashcraft, who also said it was nice to help establish a comp for pitchers in the future with similar starter-reliever career paths.
Said Stephenson: “You obviously want to win these, but even if you lost, it is what it is. It went smoother than I expected.
“We’ll move on from it and get this thing going tomorrow.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Tyler Stephenson MLB arbitration case settled against Cincinnati Reds
