Arbitration Avoided

From dodgers.com:

The Dodgers and outfielder Andre Ethier reached a settlement on a one-year contract for $3.1 million just before the scheduled start of an arbitration hearing Tuesday morning.

Ethier, who received $424,500 last year without the leverage of arbitration, was seeking $3.75 million this year with the club offering $2.65 million, with the midpoint at $3.2 million. He also received performance bonuses "at very high levels," according to general manager Ned Colletti.

It will be interesting to see what those performance bonuses are. Please pass them along if you hear the details before I do.

Ethier should have no problem notching 20+ HR's and 80+ RBI's this season, so unless the bonuses are in the Ramirez pantheon Ethier seems to be set up nicely.

UPDATE FROM TONY JACKSON....

That's a hair south of the midpoint -- a $100,000 hair, that is -- but he can get to the midpoint if he maxes out on his incentives, which are $25,000 each for 596 and 625 plate appearances and $50,000 for 650 PAs. If the 596 seems like a weird number, that's exactly how many PAs he had in 2008. What apparently opened the door for this was the fact two comparable players, St. Louis' Ryan Ludwick and Pittsburgh's Nate McLouth, settled within the past 24 hours. Ludwick got $3.7 million, and McLouth actually signed a three-year deal that has an average annual value of $4.3 million. It wouldn't be accurate to say Ethier's signing came at the last second. The sides actually postponed the hearing while they got a deal done in a hallway outside the hearing room. Ned Colletti estimates the agreement was reached between 10 and 10:15 this morning. The hearing had been scheduled for 9:30.

The 650 PA's seems attainable as he notched 596 last season while playing in 140 games. Add in an extra 15 games, at 4 appearances per game, and Ethier would tally 656.