Pence avoided arbitration and made a good amount of money. (US Presswire)

Friday at 1 p.m. ET was the deadline for eligible players to avoid the need to exchange arbitration figures with their current ballclub, so there was an unbelievable mass of signings that took place. The biggest payday went to Hunter Pence of the Giants, as he agreed to a one-year, $13.8-million deal.

For those curious and/or interested, here's what arbitration is all about -- keep in mind the most important part here is that these players were not free agents:

What's salary abitration? Players with between three years (or two years in some cases) and six years of major-league service time are eligible to have salary disputes settled by a panel of arbitrators. It's a binding process, which means the arbitrators pick either the salary submitted by the player or the salary submitted by the team -- no splitting the difference or plucking a figure out of the ether -- based on the arguments presented. As well, both team and player are bound to abide by the arbitrators' ruling. It's not free agency, of course, as players remain under team control until they have six years of service time (or are released, obviously), but it's their first taste of contractual empowerment.

As a consequence of all this, players enjoy a huge jump in salary during their arbitration years, and the curious nature of the process gives both sides incentive to negotiate a deal long before they reach that point.

Teams and players will exchange arbitration figures on Jan. 18, and arbitration hearings take place from Feb. 4-20, but the two sides can strike a deal at any point up until their hearing begins -- even after they exchange numbers and even as they're outside the hearing room waiting for their scheduled turn. According to the MLBPA, roughly 90 percent of arb-eligibles reach agreement in advance of a hearing.

Click here to see Thursday's agreements. And now here are Friday's, with as much information as we know (and it will be updated when we know more):

Source is CBSSports.com senior writer Jon Heyman.

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