Today the Miami Marlins and Anibal Sanchez conducted their hearing, the third of this year. The arbitration panel included Elizabeth Neumeier (a veteran of salary arbitration with a 17-10 record in favor of the teams), James Oldham (3-1 record in favor of the teams after the Niemann decision today), and Gil Vernon. According to my research, Vernon was involved in a total of seven decisions from 1990-1992 when he served as the sole arbitrator. He decided four of the seven in favor of players. His panel decisions are 3-2 in favor of the teams. So, the panel decision in the Sanchez case will break a 6-6 tie for Vernon.The difference between the parties is $1,100,000. The team offer is $6,900,000 while Sanchez requested $8,000,000.
This is the ninth hearing for the Marlins, and they have lost five of the eight previous decisions. They lost to Charles Johnson in 1998, Mark Redman in 2003, Miguel Cabrera in 2007, Dan Uggla in 2009, and Cody Ross in 2010. The Marlins defeated Vladimir Nunez in 2003, A.J. Burnett in 2003, and Kevin Gregg in 2007.
One historical note might be of interest to Sanchez and his representatives. If you check the list above against how long they stayed with the Marlins after their hearing, the trend is pretty clear. They did not wear a Marlins uniform for very long after the hearing. This is perhaps not that unusual because the decision to not settle and go to a hearing is often an indication that they team is thinking of going in a different direction with respect to that player in the near future.