Arbitration

The clock is winding down to Friday's deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players, and the Orioles must decide whether to tender contracts to 14 players on their 25-man roster. The largest looming decision is whether the Orioles will tender a contract to first baseman Mark Reynolds, who could command a deal in the $9 million range through the arbitration process. While the Orioles have yet to make an official decision regarding Reynolds, it has become increasingly clear that the Orioles will non-tender Reynolds and allow him to become a free agent.

It looks like Mark Reynolds is going to be the talk of November, unless you count those guys running for president, so I'm going to do a little early voting here and give you my opinion on what the Orioles should do now that they have declined to exercise an $11 million option to bring him back for the 2013 season. This issue hasn't been prominent on my radar screen, what with all the angst surrounding the Ravens, but when my buddy Eduardo Encina put out a call for your opinions on the subject on Orioles Insider, I just had to chime in. Of course, you already know that Reynolds isn't a free agent -- at least not yet. He doesn't have enough service time to qualify, so the Orioles can tender him a one-year contract and let the whole issue be settled in salary arbitration.

Now that the Orioles have declined the $11 million option for next year on Mark Reynolds, the club has two options to try to keep the 29-year-old first baseman. Since Reynolds has one year of arbitration eligibility remaining, the Orioles could tender a contract to Reynolds and hope to sign him for less through the arbitration process. Reynolds made $7.5 million last season, and it's very rare to see players take a pay cut going through arbitration. So even though Reynolds had a down year offensively, he would still figure to make in the $9 million range through the arbitration process.

We've had a lot of questions since the season ended on who will be back next year with the Orioles. We don't have a crystal ball. But I can at least give you a sense - contractually, anyway - where guys are. I may be leaving a few out, but we'll address everyone you are concerned about. Here are the club's unrestricted free agents, meaning they become free agents as soon as the World Series ends and can begin negotiating with teams besides the Orioles on the sixth day after the World Series ends (in between they can only negotiate with the Orioles)

If you would have asked me in May if there were any chance of Mark Reynolds returning to the Orioles in 2013, it would have been a short conversation. “Nope,” would have been the answer. Honestly, as late as July, there was a sense that the Orioles were kicking around the idea of releasing Reynolds and eating his remaining 2012 salary. Isn't it crazy how things work out? It's now October. And Reynolds, a butcher at third base, worked his way into becoming a pretty darn good first baseman.

Anne Arundel County's public safety unions won a major court victory Friday, when Maryland's highest court threw out a County Council measure that gutted binding arbitration. "This is a victory for all of our public safety agencies," said O'Brien Atkinson, president of the county's largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police chapter. The county has nine public safety collective-bargaining groups. In a 6-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals ruled that a 2002 change to the county's charter that provided for binding arbitration is legal, and that a law adopted last year that effectively undid it is not. "As a politician, you can't come in and undo with the stroke of a pen what the citizens voted on," said Craig Oldershaw, president of the largest union in the Fire Department.

Paul A. Dorf, a former state senator and Baltimore City circuit judge who championed the use of arbitration and mediation as alternatives to an overcrowded court system, died of renal cancer Thursday at his home in Harbor Court. He was 86. "Paul brought a very strong spirit of collegiality, high ethical standards, energy and enthusiasm to the practice of law," said Oren D. Saltzman, managing partner of the law firm of Adelberg, Rudow, Dorf & Hendler, LLC, which Judge Dorf joined in 1983 after retiring from the bench.

Finally, a spotlight will be shone on a widespread business practice that forces unhappy customers to settle disputes through binding arbitration — rather than by telling their story in court. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now is seeking public input about mandatory arbitration clauses in the contracts of financial products and services. More important, the board has the power to limit or even eliminate the clauses if they hurt consumers. For far too long, consumers have been forced to sign away their rights to sue a company should a problem arise.

A key labor battle in Anne Arundel County will go before the state's highest court next month, when the Court of Appeals tackles the dispute over binding arbitration for the county's public safety unions. Angering the nine unions, the county moved last year to give the County Council final word in collective bargaining disputes, a role formerly held by an arbitrator. Union leaders hope the Court of Appeals will undo the council's vote and the unions' subsequent loss on appeal before a county judge.

If you think you will have your day in court when aggrieved by civil injustice, think again. More likely, you will be headed for a meeting run by a professional arbitrator. Ironically, the Supreme Court is to blame. It is leading a quiet transformation by moving the country from using public court trials to secret arbitration hearings. Justice in a court of law emphasizes fairness, using costly traditional practices: impartial juries, trained judges, media-saturated trials open to the public, discovery of information, published opinions explaining judicial reasoning and review by an appellate panel.