Jarren Duran felt process to land on 2025 salary was 'all good' and 'really smooth'
Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran peeled back the curtain a little bit regarding trying to reach an agreement on a salary with the Red Sox for the 2025 season.
Duran and the Red Sox initially were separated by $500,000, the speedy outfielder wanting $4 million, and Boston offered $3.5 million. With the two sides potentially heading to arbitration, the Sox and Duran finally came to an agreement. Duran settled for $3.75 million for the 2025 campaign.
Despite the $500,000 difference in salary at the beginning, Duran didn’t feel any sort of ill will towards the club.
“I think it was fine,” Duran said about the arbitration process to reporters down in Fort Myers on Thursday. “It was all good. Talked to Brez (chief baseball officer Craig Breslow) all the time, and everything was really smooth. There was no bad banter or anything like that. I thought it went really good, actually.”
The arbitration process in sports can be ugly as the team’s front offices argue why the player on their roster doesn’t deserve the salary they’ve filed for prior to the hearing. Players and their representatives have to sit through the process and listen to why they shouldn’t be paid their perceived value.
“It’s always good when you can get it resolved on both sides, and both sides were in agreement,” Duran said. “I’m happy with what we got.“
Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow mentioned during Fenway Fest in January that he had good dialogue with Duran around coming to terms on a salary that makes sense for both sides.
One positive for Duran was he didn’t watch the process play out on social media and read the storylines within the media and amongst the fan base.
“No, I’m not really on social media that much, like Twitter or anything like that,” Duran said. “So I didn’t see any of that stuff.”
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As a negotiator, sometimes you have to say no and risk losing the deal..... or in this case, just taking a few days to file for arbitration (which I would label losing the deal). However, in the end, you (Breslow or as a negotiator) know you've got to give in or mostly give in to the Duran camp and numbers request, otherwise you end up alienating one of your best players and you send a message to future players, future free agents, that you are unwilling to pay players what they are worth. This only drives players away from your organization - which in turn, makes it almost impossible to create a winning culture, where the players love each other and the organization. Glad to see Breslow make it easy on Duran to get this done. Frankly, I'd have offered more than $4M even though I know I could get the guy for under $4M. Why? Messaging to all players across baseball that THIS IS THE PLACE YOU WANT TO BE. WHEN YOU PERFORM HERE, WE ARE WILLING TO PAY YOU.