"The Brewers offered arbitration Wednesday to Type A free agents Prince Fielder and Francisco Rodriguez, positioning the club to receive four premium picks in next year's First-Year Player Draft should both players reject the offer and sign elsewhere.

The club declined to offer arbitration to shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, a Type B free agent who would have netted one extra pick. They were contractually barred from offering arbitration to their other Type A player, reliever Takashi Saito.

This is the final offseason in which the "Type A" and "Type B" ranking system will be employed. Here is one final primer of how it works: "