MLB’s salary arbitration hearings are in the home stretch this week—and this is the part of the offseason where the money gets decided the hard way.

In this Fast Break, we break down:

• What an arbitration hearing actually is (and why the panel must pick one side’s number)

• Why so many deals get done at the last possible second

• What teams and players argue (comparables, role, performance—no fairy-tale “intangibles”)

• Why this system shapes trades, extensions, and the entire roster chessboard

• We’ll also use real 2026 examples to show how wild the stakes can get—because “a few million” is never just a few million when it echoes through a payroll.

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Disclaimer: Educational content only. Not legal advice. Not creating an attorney-client relationship.