Orioles exchange salary figures with three unsigned players

The Orioles confirmed tonight that they exchanged salary figures with pitchers Kevin Gausman and Brad Brach and catcher Caleb Joseph. They settled with six of their arbitration-eligible players.

Hearing dates will be set for the unsigned trio. I've been told again that the Orioles will file and go, leading to hearings that can be scheduled between Jan. 30-Feb. 17.

I heard earlier today that the gap between the Orioles and Brach was the largest, and FanRag Sports reported later that the reliever filed at $3.05 million and the club countered at $2.525 million. A source has confirmed those figures.

Gausman filed at $3.55 million and the Orioles countered at $3.15 million, according to a source. Joseph filed at $1 million and the Orioles countered at $700,000.

Infielder Ryan Flaherty signed for $1.8 million, left-hander T.J. McFarland for $685,000, closer Zach Britton for $11.4 million, Manny Machado for $11.5 million, Chris Tillman for $10.5 million and second baseman Jonathan Schoop for $3.475 million.

"It's always good to sign players and reward them for excellent seasons and we had a number of players who had really good seasons," said executive vice president Dan Duquette. "Manny and Zach Britton are two of the elite players in the league and they earned substantial raises from the club. We tried to fairly compensate them within guidelines of the system. We're happy to sign them, and also get an agreement with Jon Schoop, another everyday ballplayer who's continued to improve.

"Chris Tillman has had several good years with the Orioles and he was rewarded for the length and consistency of his contributions to the team today. That's all good.

"When players have good years like these players have had, they're going to receive substantial raises from the system and that's what happened today. It was an upgrade in compensation for some good young players who have done good work for the Orioles."

Duquette said there were talks regarding extensions for a couple of players - the assumption being Tillman and Britton.

"We generally explore that during the course of the negotiations and we did explore the possibility, but they're all one-year deals," he said.

The Orioles are determined to go to hearings with Gausman, Brach and Joseph, known as "file and go" or "file and trial."

"The rationale is to put our time and energy into developing our team and we spent a fair amount of time trying to fairly compensate all of the players, and if we can't agree, we can't agree," Duquette said. "We've always tried to fairly compensate our players and we're going to continue to do that."