Yankees avoid arbitration with Michael Pineda and Dustin Ackley

At the beginning of the offseason, the Yankees had seven arbitration-eligible players, but after trading Justin Wilson, Adam Warren, and adding Aroldis Chapman, that number has gone down to six. The Yankees have not gone to arbitration with a player since they beat Chien-Ming Wang in the 2007-2008 offseason, so expect everyone to sign contracts before the offseason is done. Currently they have agreed with two players and are still negotiating with the other four.

The Yankees have signed Michael Pineda to a $4.3 million contract to avoid arbitration while he was projected to make $4.6 million according to MLB Trade Rumors. He likely lost some money due to his injury problems this season and struggles after returning from the disabled list. Dustin Ackley has agreed to a $3.2 million contract, which is actually a raise over the $3.1 million he was projected to make by MLBTR. Maybe the Yankees were impressed by his late-September surge or they're trying to keep him happy with the bench role he will be playing this year.

Ivan Nova, Nathan Eovaldi, Didi Gregorius, and Aroldis Chapman are all still negotiating, but I would be shocked to see any of them go to a hearing. Nova is projected for $4.4 million, which I don't think he gets, Eovaldi should get around $5.7 million, Didi Gregorius probably deserves more than $2.1 million, and Aroldis Chapman will probably get around $12.9 million. I'm not sure if current role plays a part in negotiations, but it seemed like a stupid idea naming Chapman the closer before arbitration when the organization avoided doing the same thing with David Robertson in 2014.

Yes, this is an incredibly boring time of the offseason for a lot of fans, but it's an important one too. We should have all financial information soon and then we can move on with our baseball lives onto better and more interesting things.