The Phillies and reliever Hector Neris avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $4.6 million deal. Jim Salisbury had the news first this morning.
Phillies avoided arb hearing with Hector Neris. Settlement at $4.6 mill.
— Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyNBCS) February 21, 2020
Neris had submitted at $5.2 million and the team had countered at $4.25 million; $4.6 million comes in just under the midpoint of $4.725 million. Hector turns 31 in June, and will be eligible for arbitration one more time in 2021.
UPDATE: The deal also includes a $7 million team option for 2021, with no buyout.
Neris was the last of the Phillies’ arbitration-eligible players still without a defined salary for 2020. With that fixed, the team only has renewals and pre-arbitration agreements left to settle. Including estimates for those players from RosterResource, plus benefits counted toward the CBT, the club’s payroll sits just under $204 million, leaving them with about $4 million of space to maneuver beneath the first threshold (or about $24 million if they really wanted to get serious).
The team kicks off its Spring Training battles Saturday afternoon against the Tigers.