Cliff Pennington + Diamondbacks avoid arbitration

#Dbacks avoid arbitration and agree to a one-year contract with INF Cliff Pennington.

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) December 29, 2014

No details at this point on the price, but MLB Trade Rumors projected Pennington, who is in his final year of arbitration eligibility, to get $3.3 million. This will be Cliff's third season playing for the Diamondbacks, having come over from the Athletics in the trade of Chris Young. He has put up a line of .247/.322/.325 in his time with Arizona - that's only an OPS+ of 80, but has provided strong defense, and as a result has been worth a total of 3.3 bWAR in 2013-2014, playing 164 games combined. A repeat performance at that rate would be fine.

The departure of Didi Gregorius for New York may mean more playing time for Pennington going forward, especially as he also offers position flexibility. Last year, Cliff started games for Arizona at second, third and shortstop, and made only two errors in 388 overall innings. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of the same from him in 2015. However, with Pennington being a free-agent at the end of the season, he could end up on the trading block if the Diamondbacks drop out of contention before the trade deadline.

That news leaves three players still unsigned for next year: Jeremy Hellickson, Addison Reed and Mark Trumbo. They will likely be the most expensive of the bunch, even though Hellickson and Trumbo are only in their second year or arbitration and Reed, his first.