NL and AL Cy Young Award winners Jake Arrieta of the Cubs and Dallas Keuchel of the Astros, as well as AL MVP Josh Donaldson of the Blue Jays, were among 156 players who filed for salary arbitration by Tuesday's deadline, the MLB Players Association announced.
Today 156 @MLB_PLAYERS have filed for #SalaryArbitration ... pic.twitter.com/KclHBkZ8bi
— MLBPA (@MLB_PLAYERS) January 12, 2016New Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman, who was paid just more than $8 million by the Reds in 2015, is expected to file the biggest salary request barring a settlement before players and teams formally exchange arbitration figures Friday.
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Keuchel, who went 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA while working for the MLB minimum of slightly over $500,000, can expect a huge raise, perhaps the biggest raise among those who filed.
Arrieta, who had 22 wins including a no-hitter, made $3.63 million in 2015 but could see his 2016 salary jump to eight figures.
Donaldson, who lost his arbitration case in 2015, was paid $4.3 million while leading Toronto to their first playoff appearance since 1993.
If players and teams can't come to agreements, then they will have arbitration hearings in February.
MORE: Breaking down the MLB salary arbitration process
Last season saw a marked jump in the number of cases that went before the three-person hearing panels. Teams won eight of 14 cases after there were only three hearings in 2014 and none the year before that, The Associated Press reported.
According to MLB.com, teams have won 286 times and players 214 times since the process was instituted in 1974.
MLBTradeRumors.com has a team-by-team list of all players who filed for arbitration, their MLB service time and projected 2016 salary here.
