Today marks the deadline for team's to offer arbitration to their free agents to be. Arbitration isn't just about securing a player, but also about securing draft picks in the event that the player moves on to another team. For the sake of draft pick compensation, players are organized into two categories: Type A and Type B.

Type A free agents net the losing team two picks, one of which is forfeited by the team that signs the player. Type B free agents net the losing team one pick, but it is a supplemental pick and is not taken away from another team.

The Yankees Type A free agents include Bobby Abreu, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte and Ivan Rodriguez. The Type B free agents are Jason Giambi and Carl Pavano. The downside of offering a player arbitration is that he might actually take it (*cough* Pavano *cough*). That's why you don't want to offer arbitration to everyone. While suggesting that we should offer arbitration to Pettitte, Mike says that no one has ever had their salary decreased through arbitration.

Part of me would like to see the Yankees offer Carl Pavano arbitration just so that we could see how that case would play out. Would the arbiter really give him a raise? It's also hard for me to think that Jason Giambi would be worth more than the $21 million he was paid in 2008.

What will the Yankees do? Peter Abraham guesses that they will make offers to Abreu, Mussina and Pettitte. Meanwhile, Ken Davidoff says that only Abreu is "likely" to receive an offer.

I would like to see them do as Abraham suggests. Mussina is retired, but in case he has any second thoughts, there is no risk in offering it. Pettitte would be good to get back, even at a slight raise.

Though I would consider Abreu to be overpaid, the truth is that the free agent market for corner outfielders doesn't exactly knock you over. And Xavier Nady isn't what I would call a proven commodity at this point, being that he is a .280 average/.335 on base percentage/.458 slugging percentage hitter for his career. Abreu may be on the decline, but given our roster and the market, he's worth having.

Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano and Ivan Rodriguez all make too much to be seriously considered. We have no place for Pudge. Really, we've been counting the days until the contracts of Giambi and, especially, Pavano would be up. Giambi has been a valuable player, but his inconsistency has been an issue. I wouldn't mind having him back in a lesser role, but him leaving might be for the best. We can give Hideki Matsui the DH role and find a first baseman who is better with the glove than Giambi was.