NEW YORK — Giants ace Tim Lincecum asked for $13 million in salary arbitration, a record for a player eligible for the first time, and Seattle pitcher Felix Hernandez closed in on a five-year contract with the Mariners worth about $78 million.
On the busiest day of baseball’s offseason, 70 players eligible for arbitration reached agreements on contracts, leaving just 39 still on track for hearings next month. That’s a fraction of the more than 200 players eligible for arbitration in November, the 128 who filed Friday and the 46 who swapped figures with their teams earlier Tuesday.
Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon agreed to a $9.35 million, one-year deal, the highest salary for a reliever with at least four years of major- league service. The agreement surpassed Mariano Rivera’s $7.25 million contract after the 2000 season and was halfway between the $10.25 million Papelbon asked for and the $8.45 million the Red Sox offered.
Lincecum is seeking the richest contract ever awarded in arbitration, surpassing the $10 million Alfonso Soriano (2006) and Francisco Rodriguez (2008) received in losses and Ryan Howard won at a hearing in 2008. Howard’s request had been the highest for a player in his first year of eligibility.
San Francisco offered $8 million to Lincecum, 40-17 with a 2.90 ERA since he was brought up early in the 2007 season. He won the NL Cy Young Award in each of his first two full seasons, becoming the first repeat winner since Randy Johnson from 1999-02. Lincecum was a bargain for the Giants last year, when he made $650,000.
Also, Lincecum agreed to pay $513 to resolve marijuana charges against him in Washington state. He originally faced two misdemeanor charges of marijuana and drug paraphernalia possession stemming from a traffic stop Oct. 30. The charges were reduced to a civil infraction.
Hernandez asked for the second-highest figure in arbitration, $11.5 million, and the Mariners offered $7.2 million.
Tampa Bay and pitcher Matt Garza both filed at $3.35 million, an unusual occurrence. Not surprisingly, they also agreed at that figure.
