Nats agree to terms with all 17 pre-arbitration players

By Dan Kolko

Nationals

February 26, 2014, 12:09pm

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VIERA, Fla. - The Nationals announced late this afternoon that they've agreed to terms with all 17 of their pre-arbitration players, settling the contract terms for all players on the 40-man roster for 2014. The 17 players are: Danny Espinosa, Ryan Mattheus, Tyler Moore, Xavier Cedeno, Tanner Roark, Taylor Jordan, Jhonatan Solano, Erik Davis, Eury Perez, Christian Garcia, Jeff Kobernus, Sandy Leon, Zach Walters, Aaron Barrett, Sammy Solis, Steven Souza Jr. and Michael A. Taylor. This is a minor news story in that if the team and a pre-arbitration player (also known as a zero-to-three player) don't agree on that player's salary for the season, the team will announce that it has "renewed the contract" of the player. In such a situation, the team just dictates what the player's salary will be, so long as it's over the league minimum of $500,000. That didn't happen here with the Nats, however, so there won't be any hard feelings, as there can be if a team renews the contract of a player. Generally, pre-arbitration players get a slight raise over their previous year's salary. Only in rare cases, like with Mike Trout and the Angels, does a player end up getting a significant raise before reaching arbitration.