Stammen joins Ramos, avoids arbitration (Espinosa, Lobaton agree to terms)

The Nationals have been busy heading into Friday's deadline for arbitration-eligible players to come to contract terms before exchanging salary figures with their clubs.

Earlier today, they announced that catcher Wilson Ramos had agreed to terms on a contract for 2015, avoiding arbitration. This evening, right-handed reliever Craig Stammen also came to terms, leaving the Nats with six unsigned players who are arbitration-eligible (the Nats removed one of their players on the list by trading set-up man Tyler Clippard to the A's last night).

The 30-year-old Stammen, an unsung hero in the bullpen because he performs a variety of roles, will get $2.25 million for 2015, a bump from his $1.375 million salary in 2014. Stammen went 4-5 with a 3.84 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 49 relief outings last year, his worst statistical year since posting a 5.13 ERA in 2010.

But with Clippard gone to Oakland, and other power arms moving up on the bullpen depth chart, Stammen could be asked to shoulder an increased load for 2015. Stammen is in his third year of arbitration eligibility, but gets a fourth year because he qualified for Super Two status.

The 27-year-old Ramos will earn $3.55 million in 2015, a nice jump from the $2.095 million he made in 2014, when he slashed .267/.299/.399 with 11 homers and 47 RBIs. He played in only 88 games, missing time with a broken hamate bone in his left hand and chronic hamstring problems, but produced when healthy. The Nationals are intrigued by the kind of production Ramos could offer during a full season without extended time on the disabled list. He is in his second arbitration year.

With Ramos and Stammen coming to terms, the unsigned arbitration-eligible Nationals are right-handed starting pitchers Stephen Strasburg and Doug Fister, closer Drew Storen, bullpen lefty Jerry Blevins, catcher Jose Lobaton and infielder Danny Espinosa.

Update: You can cross Lobaton and Espinosa off the list. Both have agreed to terms for 2015, avoiding arbitration.

The 27-year-old Espinosa will earn $1.8 million after slashing .219/.283/.351 with eight homers and 27 RBIs in 2014, when he was paid $540,580. This was Espinosa's first arbitration-eligible year.

The Nationals acquired the 30-year-old Lobaton from Tampa Bay just as spring training started and he proved to be a valuable backup, given Ramos' injuries. Lobaton slashed .234/.287/.304 with two homers and 12 RBIs in 66 games, drawing raves from the pitching staff for his game-calling and pitch-framing, an advanced metric the Nationals cited when trading for him. After earning $900,000 in 2014, Lobaton gets a raise to $1.2 million in his first year of arbitration eligibility.

That leaves Strasburg, Fister, Storen and Blevins as unsigned arbitration-eligibles.