Report: Giants beat Solano in first arbitration case since '03

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Donovan Solano's late-career breakthrough with the Giants has led to life-changing money, but the second baseman will be getting a bit less than he hoped for in 2021. 

Solano lost his arbitration hearing with the Giants, according to MLB.com's Mark Feinsand, locking in a salary of $3.25 million for his final year under team control. Solano had asked for a raise to $3.9 million. Both sides present their case in a hearing and an arbiter selects one side. 

This was the first hearing for the Giants since A.J. Pierzynski in 2003, although others -- including Tim Lincecum and Brandon Belt -- have come close over the years. The Giants, like just about every other franchise these days, take a file-and-trial approach with arbitration, meaning they treat the deadline to exchange figures as a hard deadline to reach a compromise and avoid a hearing. The Giants previously had reached deals with all of their arbitration-eligible players. 

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Solano, 33, figures to once again be in the middle of the action in his third season with the Giants. He had a .326/.365/.463 slash line in 2020 and won the Silver Slugger Award at second base. 

Solano will be a free agent after this season and it could be his final one in San Francisco. The Giants signed Tommy La Stella to a three-year deal in the offseason and hold a club option on Wilmer Flores for 2022. Will Wilson, one of their top prospects, could be ready by next spring as well. 

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