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The Oakland Telegraph
15 November 2025
Big budget brainache for Beane
By O. Myword, worst case scenario correspondent
I can confidently predict that no members of the salary arbitration panel will be on Oakland GM Paulie Beane's Christmas card list. They announced their arbitration hearing results yesterday and it contained the news Oakland feared most: starting pitcher Karl Dickson was apparently determined to be a super-2 qualifier (it would be nice if the panel actually confirmed that, chuntered an irate Beane), and was awarded arbitration.
Arbitration awards for 2026 were also made to Jakson Reetz ($9.0m), Denny Miller ($14.4m), Patrick Snel ($7.1m) and Alejandro Gusman ($7.1m), which are all high but in line with Beane's expectations. But it is the Dickson decision which has really got his goat. Yes, the 23-year-old Dickson is an excellent player, but he has only 2 years 139 days of service time, and has a 21-23 record with 3.32 ERA. The panel awarded him $14.1m for 2026.
Beane is now left in a right old pickle for next season. With these arbitration estimates, and rolling forward the value of other players' existing contracts, Oakland's payroll projects to be $175m. Owner Ban-ki Rupt has set a budget of $150m. This is, says Beane, "every so slightly a teeny weeny financial cashflow problem." Unlike this time last year, departing free agent contracts are not riding to Beane's rescue. Left fielder Raimel Tapia, ancient shortstop Marcus Semien and surprisingly decent reliever Luke Jackson will all be leaving. However, their salaries are only just over $7m combined, so the committed payroll will remain $167m.
Pundits predict that Beane may look to move on Denny Miller, who, despite being a three-time all-star, looks overpaid for next year, and reserve catcher Luis Torrens, who has not provided good value for his $5m salary, to put it mildly. Replacing these two with minimum salary players will reduce Beane's projected payroll to $149m. That's within budget of course, but as Beane points out, that would leave him with no budget headroom to offer new contracts to prospective arbitration-eligible players like left fielder Martin Wilson, and he'll be back at the mercy of the arbitration panel again in a year's time.
So will Beane look to move on one or more other big contracts to give him that headroom? High-earning key pieces like Reetz, Jose Fernandez, Josh Morgan, Eddie Holland and Rodney Stewart look untouchable. But could Beane be considering moving ageing club stalwarts like first baseman Matt Olson ($9m next year) or shortstop Franklin Barreto ($7m)? We'll find out in good time, of course, but no harm in filling some spare column inches engaging in wild speculation in the meanwhile.
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