Josh Donaldson Granted Super Two Qualification

Josh Donaldson has been granted Super Two qualification by the Players Association and Major League Baseball. Isn’t that special? If you’re like a lot of die hard fans and most casual fans, you have no idea what Super Two qualification even is so, to the best of my limited ability, I’m going to explain the wonders of labor negotiations. Grab a tissue, the excitement is bound to induce nose bleeds.

So, as you may know, major league baseball players’ salaries are determined by the team for the first three years of a players major league career. As you can imagine, most of these salaries are set at the league minimum wage which is a half-million dollars. In case you can’t read my tone, I said that last line in a Dr. Evil voice.

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A player is under team control for the first six years of their major career which means that for years four through six they are eligible for arbitration and can negotiate their salary. We saw Josh Reddick go through the arbitration process last year when he and the Oakland Athletics were unable to agree on a fair salary. What happens in arbitration is that, in this case, Reddick makes a case for why he’s worth $300,000,000 by saying things like, “I was a gold glove, people love me, I have a nice beard, I’m the only one who knows where the pie plates are,” and the Athletics respond with a list of reasons why he’s worth less like, “you’re batting .034, your locker smells like cauliflower, we’re tired of you throwing pies in our face when we walk off the bus, and we think beards are stupid.” It can get ugly. Ultimately, whoever makes the most reasonable offer wins as the arbitrator will compare both offers to the market value of other bearded gold glovers.

The arbitration process is great for players because it gives them the chance to make considerably more money than league minimum while still being under team control. For Super Two players, they are gifted from on high with an extra year of arbitration eligibility based on their performance. How do they qualify? What a great question. I’m glad you asked.

The qualification takes effect if a player has fewer than three years in the majors (because then he’d be a standard arbitration eligibility) but more than two years of experience. So, you take all of those guys with two solid years in the majors and take the top 22% of those guys, in terms of playing time which means to be eligible for Super Two status this year you would have had to played 2 years and 133 days at the major league level. If you played two years and 132 days, you’re just plain out of luck.

What does Donaldson’s new status mean for the Athletics? Probably nothing other than having to write a bigger check for the cornerstone of their franchise at the moment. It’s doubtful that this came as a surprise to anyone in the A’s front office as every GM worth his salt keeps track of these things and knows the exact day that a player crosses that line but even if Billy Beane is shocked to learn of this news when he’s reading this article over coffee, I doubt that they would have held Donaldson back just to keep him from becoming eligible.

It’s impossible to predict what Josh Donaldson will receive in compensation now that he is a Super Two player. Players in arbitration are paid less than the free agent market would demand but it will be a sharp and deserving increase in pay for the young third baseman.