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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Price, Upton, Howell, Badenhop, Niemann file for arbitration

Posted Jan 14, 2012 by Roger Mooney

Updated Jan 14, 2012 at 12:54 PM

ROGER MOONEY

David Price, B.J. Upton, J.P. Howell, Burke Badenhop and Jeff Niemann are five of the 142 major leaguers who filed for arbitration Friday.

The deadline for the representatives of each player and the Rays to exchange figures is noon Tuesday. Arbitration hearings begin Feb. 1 for those players who did not reach an agreement on a contract for 2012.

Price will receive the biggest jump in salary through this process. A Super 2 player, he opted out of the final year of his contract, which would have paid him $1.5 million this year.

The two-time All-Star who started on Opening Day in 2011 had a subpar season, going 12-13 with a 3.49 ERA after going 19-6 with a 2.72 ERA in 2010 when he was the American League Cy Young Award runner-up.

Price could be bumped up to the $4 million range.

Upton agreed to a $4.825 million contract last winter to avoid arbitration. His 23 home runs and 36 stolen bases in 2011 were matched by only two other major leaguers – Matt Kemp (39 home runs, 40 steals) and Jacoby Ellsbury (32, 39).

After moving to second in the order on Sept. 5, Upton batted .356 with 5 home runs, 14 RBI, 8 doubles, 10 walks, 8 stolen bases, a .462 on-base percentage and a .644 slugging percentage. He reached base in 22 of the 23 games played while batting second.

Those numbers should bring Upton’s salary into the $7 million neighborhood.

Howell made $1.1 million last season, when he struggled after coming back from the shoulder surgery that cost him the 2010 season.

Badenhop made $750,000 for the Marlins.

Niemann made $903,000.