Padres Sign Stults And Stauffer To Avoid Arbitration

Stults gets a sizable raise to avoid arbitration.

Last night, Ken Rosenthal was on the ball and reporting some Padres news regarding Eric Stults and Tim Stauffer remaining in their Padres uniforms for a while longer.

Source: #Padres re-sign Eric Stults, one year, $2.75M.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 3, 2013

On Stults deal with #Padres: It is guaranteed. One year, $2.75M. Standard arbitration contracts not guaranteed.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 3, 2013

Source: #Padres sign Tim Stauffer for one year, $1.6M, guaranteed, avoiding arbitration.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 3, 2013

It's nice to see Tim Stauffer have a spot on the team for another year. In 2013, Stauffer posted a 3.75 ERA in 43 appearances out of the bullpen. Over his 69.2 innings, he recorded 64 strikeouts while allowing 20 walks. For Stauffer, a place in the bullpen was good for him after only pitching once in 2012 before undergoing surgery, thus ending his season. After the season, Stauffer entered free agency and in January of this year, he was resigned by the Padres.

Eris Stults is going to make some good money this year. $2.75 million dollars. It may not seem like much, but it is a huge raise over his former contract. In fact, it is nearly a $2.25 million dollar raise. In 2013, Stults made $507,000 in his first full season as a Padre. Stults led the team in games started (33), innings pitched (203.2),strikeouts (131), and wins (11). In Wonko's post last month on the possible payroll for 2014, he pointed out that MLB Trade Rumors had Stults making an estimated 3 million dollars in arbitration and Stauffer making an estimated 1.2 million dollars.

Altogether, these are good investments for the Padres. Stauffer is a good bullpen arm and Stults was due that raise after his productive 2013 season with San Diego. We do have to remember that Stults was a name mentioned by Bill Center who could be part of a trade for a lefty arm and/or bat. Byrnes said he wants a deal done by the Winter Meetings, so having Stults avoid arbitration right now could be the first step in getting a deal done within the next 2 weeks. We'll just have to wait and see.