Darin Ruf falls short of qualifying for salary arbitration

LOS ANGELES — From the corrections department — not to be confused with the department of redundancy department — the Dodgers have a total of five players still eligible for salary arbitration, not six as previously and erroneously reported. Darin Ruf does not qualify for arbitration this offseason, though he came close.

Ruf has two years, 138 days of major league service time, and is among the top 22% of players with at least two but not quite three years of service, which would normally qualify Ruf for “Super Two” status, meaning four years of arbitration instead of just three. Back in October, MLB Trade Rumors reported that the cutoff for Super Two status is two years, 131 days.

But per the collective bargaining agreement, there is one other requirement for Super Two status. A player needs to have accumulated at least 86 days of service time in the immediately preceding season, the equivalent of one-half of a full year.

Ruf in 2016 with the Phillies accrued just 72 days of major league service time, falling two weeks shy of eligibility for salary arbitration this winter.

That means Ruf is still under team control, likely to earn somewhere slightly above the new major league minimum of $535,000 in 2017. Ruf in 2016 made $527,000 when the MLB minimum was $507,500.

The Dodgers acquired Ruf from Philadelphia on Nov. 11 in the Howie Kendrick trade.

Without Ruf, that means five Dodgers remain eligible for salary arbitration — catcher Yasmani Grandal and pitchers Alex Wood, Luis Avilan, Josh Fields and Vidal Nuno. The filing date for salary arbitration is Tuesday, Jan. 10, and the salary exchange date is Friday, Jan. 13.