Angels avoid arbitration with Kendry Morales, Erick Aybar

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Angels first baseman Kendry Morales and shortstop Erick Aybar have reportedly agreed to terms on 2011 contracts, avoiding arbitration on the day players and teams are scheduled to submit arbitration figures.

Morales will make $2.975 million next season, a considerable raise from his $700,000 salary in 2010, and Aybar will make $3 million, almost $1 million more than the $2.05 million he made in 2010.

Morales had a breakout season in 2009, hitting .306 with 34 home runs and 108 runs batted in, but he broke his left leg while jumping into home plate after hitting a game-winning home run against the Seattle Mariners on May 29 and missed the rest of the 2010 season.

Morales, who was batting .290 with 11 homers and 39 RBIs at the time of the injury, is on course to return in spring training, Manager Mike Scioscia said at the winter meetings in December.

Aybar also had a breakout season in 2009, hitting .312 with a .353 on-base percentage, five homers, nine triples and 58 RBIs, but the speedy switch-hitter struggled to adjust to the leadoff spot last season and hit only .253 with a .306 on-base percentage, five homers and 29 RBIs.

-- Mike DiGiovanna

Top photo: Kendry Morales. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times