Braves Win Arbitration Case Against Reliever Shane Greene

In the modern day financial climate of Major League Baseball, there is delicate balance between organizations posturing as though they can afford anyone and conversely being as financially conservative as possible when the situation presents itself. One of the more heated ways a team can maintain this monetary control over a player? Salary arbitration.

Despite a player's best effort, an arbitrator reserves the right to rule in favor of a team when the two parties can't agree on a salary number. This has happened again with the Atlanta Braves, who won their arbitration case against Shane Greene, and only have to pay him $6.25 million for the 2020 season.

The 31-year old reliever, who was an All-Star in 2019 for the Detroit Tigers before being traded to Atlanta in July, helped the Braves win the NL East and reach the playoffs despite being unable to lock down the closer's role there. Unfortunately, with more teams not willing to hand out more money than needed to middle relief arms, it can be understood why the Braves did not want to commit a giant bag of cash.

When looking at what both sides were fighting over, it may seem a bit silly that this standoff even had to arbitration in the first place. However, in a sport where you can crash out of the league in the blink of an eye after a string of rough relief appearances, t's understandable why Greene opted to fight for every last dollar possible and refused to settle with the organization before entering legal proceedings.