The Arizona Diamondbacks have nine players eligible for salary arbitration in 2025. Major league players between three and five years of service time are granted the right to negotiate their yearly salary with the club. There is a notable exception for players with two years of service, but in the Top 20% of those players are granted arbitration rights as a "Super Two" player.
The deadline for the player and the team to exchange their salary numbers is Thursday, Jan. 9. Because of that deadline, there's typically a lot of movement for arbitration-eligible players to settle on a salary number for the season instead of going to a hearing. During the process, a player will file for a higher salary than the team if it gets that far, with an independent arbitrator ruling on which number wins out.
Pavin Smith is the first arbitration-eligible player to settle with the club, with the New York Post's Jon Heyman reporting he and the team agreed to a $1.5 million salary in his first year of arbitration.
Here are all of the Diamondbacks players headed to arbitration in 2025
Pavin Smith, D-Backs settle at $1.5M to avoid arbitration
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 9, 2025
After being an everyday player in 2021, he has been up and down from the minor leagues the past three years. He showcased a mini power breakout at the end of 2024 and could be part of the team's solution for the designated hitter role in 2025. He was projected a $1.6 million salary by labor economist and MLB Trade Rumors contributor Dr. Matt Swartz, so Arizona saves $100K vs. that estimate.
The other eight arbitration-eligible players include Zac Gallen, Josh Naylor, A.J. Puk, Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel, Joe Mantiply, Kyle Nelson, and Geraldo Perdomo. These are their projected salaries for 2025, ranked from highest to lowest, which totals up to $38.4 million:
- Gallen (5.100): $14.1 million
- Naylor (5.127): $12.0 million
- Thompson (4.095): $2.9 million
- Puk (4.124): $2.6 million
- Ginkel (4.033): $2.3 million
- Perdomo (3.015): $2.1 million
- Mantiply (4.029): $1.6 million
- K. Nelson (3.076): $800K
As we get closer to the deadline, we should see more players settle or exchange figures preparing for a hearing. If you're interested in the arbitration experience from a player who went to a hearing, Thompson put together a very informative thread of posts on X in 2023 after losing his case to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Under general manager Mike Hazen, the Diamondbacks have been a file then trial club. Notable cases that went to arbitration include Archie Bradley in 2020 and Josh Rojas in 2023. While Bradley won his case and Rojas lost his, both players expressed appreciation for how the team conducted itself during the process after it was over.