Today is the deadline for eligible players to file for salary arbitration. There are three arbitration-eligible players on the Red Sox this year, each of whom has completed three or more years of major league service: Javier Lopez (3.065), Kyle Snyder (4.026) and Kevin Youkilis (3.093). Brendan Donnelly would also have been eligible, had he remained on the Sox roster. I have not seen official confirmation yet whether all of these guys have filed for arbitration, but I would expect that each of them will.

Under the current CBA, the team can continue to negotiate with players who have filed for arbitration -- and the Red Sox have always tended to finalize contracts and get their arbitration-eligibles signed up without having to actually go through the entire arbitration process. In fact, no Sox player has ever gone to arbitration during Theo Epstein's tenure as general manager. Players and clubs exchange figures on January 18th, and then arbitration hearings are conducted (if need be) in the month of February, from the 1st through the 21st.

For everything you wanted to know about arbitration, but were afraid to ask, here's the Arbitration Primer I put together back in November.