McLouth & Maholm Arbitration

It was announced yesterday that Paul Maholm and Nate McLouth will head to arbitration hearings in February on the 10th and 17th respectively.

Given Maholm's strong performances over the past year and a half, I expect him to win his case, if the two sides don't reach an agreement by then. However, I expect that these two sides will come to some sort of agreement prior to that. I'm expecting a multi-year deal worth somewhere between 9-13 million dollars. Maholm is the kind of pitcher that will be a leader, through his actions more so than his words, and will be important to the stability of the pitching rotation in the next couple of years.

I expect Nate McLouth to head to his hearing on the 17th. The fact that McLouth is a Gold Glove All-Star, I don't expect to see these two sides reach an agreement. As several others have stated on message boards and blogs, McLouth will probably be offered a standard 1 year deal for the 3.8 million he is asking for.

If that is the case for McLouth, look for guys like Brandon Moss, Jose Tabata, Nyjer Morgan, and Steve Pearce to be front runners in filling out the outfield in 2010.

Let's Go Bucs!