Playing about 10 years noticed a similar issue I noticed in last years version. Players who have little in terms of playing time or stats and who are backups demand way way too much in arbitration and a granted it. Case in point I have a 3rd basemen who has great ratings but he is my backup right now... So he plays 100-200abs in each year for the past 3 seasons at the most. For this he demands and gets 12.5million
it's the same money my all star starters are asking for in arbitration.
I know it's not feasible to have a backup with super ratings to ask for a super cheap contract over multiple years... But getting awarded a one year cheap contract seems doable... If he takes the starter job the arbitrator can grant him a larger contract.
Anyway this can be tweaked? I think it hurts long time playability
.