BRADENTON, Fla. -- The Pirates won their arbitration case with Ji-Man Choi, meaning the newly acquired first baseman will make $4.65 million this season.
Choi had filed at $5.4 million, while MLB Trade Rumors originally projected in November that he would make $4.5 million in his final trip through arbitration.
Choi reported to Pirate City Friday, ahead of the first full-team workout on Feb. 20, but he did not take part in on-field activities and was not made available to the media.
He was the only arbitration-eligible Pirate who did not settle before the file date in January, and the first Pirate to have a hearing since Tony Watson in 2017.
There certainly have been some road bumps for the club and Choi in their first few months together. Acquired from the Rays for minor-league pitcher Jack Hartman in November, Choi had right elbow surgery shortly after joining the club for an ailment the club was aware of. Because of that surgery, the Pirates made a request for him not to participate in the World Baseball Classic, to which the WBC complied.
"His offseason was different than they had been in the past. And, yes, that was part of the conversation about the WBC," Ben Cherington explained Thursday. "At the time those decisions were made, it wasn't clear that he was going to be fully ready to participate in a way that you'd want a player to be. So we had some concern about that and had a conversation with him."
According to Cherington, Choi had just recently begun taking batting practice, though he stated there was not a setback in his rehab.
Still, not being able to play for his country hurt the veteran first baseman.
"I am extremely disappointed and deeply hurt, because I was building up nicely for the national team training camp in the middle of this month and the first round of the WBC," Choi said in a released statement according to the Yonhap News Agency, a South Korean news outlet.
The Pirates are hopeful the WBC decision in particular doesn't cause any divide with his new club.
"In our mind, we thought it was best for the Pirates with where he was at health-wise," Derek Shelton said. "We have to make sure we get ready for the season. We’ll sit down and have a conversation. Don’t really feel that it’ll be an issue at all."
Choi, 31, slashed .233/.341/.388 with 11 home runs and 52 RBIs for the Rays last season. He had a 114 OPS+ and 1.2 WAR. He and Carlos Santana will split first base duties this season.
