Had he qualified for arbitration, he could have expected a salary of roughly $1.5 million.
With 2 years 119 days of major league service time, Gagne fell 18 days short of qualifying for arbitration.
Because Espinosa has yet to accrue enough service time to qualify for arbitration, the Nationals owed him only the league minimum salary of $500,000.
But for Strasburg, the nature of that fourth year would depend on whether or not he will have qualified for arbitration as a "Super Two" player at the end of 2012.
After another brief shutdown (August 6 7 , 1985 centring on salary arbitration, the owners agreed to increase the minimum salary from $40,000 to $60,000, but the number of major league seasons a player had to serve before qualifying for arbitration was raised from two to three.
Dahl should qualify for arbitration as a Super 2 player after this season.
Allen, 27, also qualified for arbitration this season, and comes with two more years of control.
Espinosa needed two years and 122 days of service time to qualify for salary arbitration as a "Super Two" player.
He will likely fall a matter of days short of achieving "Super Two" status and qualifying for salary arbitration this offseason.
Upton is just short of service time to qualify for salary arbitration, and the Rays retain the option of keeping him for a small raise above his $412,100 salary this year.
Veteran players with enough tenure to qualify for salary arbitration or free agency command larger paychecks than younger players, who typically make close to the league minimum.
