The Milwaukee Brewers swapped salary figures with starting pitcher Tomokazu Ohka on Tuesday but were unable to reach a settlement, baseball sources said.
Right-hander Ohka, who made $2.75 million in 2005, wants a raise to $5.2 million in arbitration while the Brewers' offer came in at
$4.25 million, a gap of $950,000.
"We worked right up until the deadline and it's unfortunate that we couldn't get a deal negotiated," Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash, who handled negotiations with Ohka, was quoted as saying by MLB.com.
"We made what we felt were last offers in both cases (for Ohka and center fielder Brady Clark) but both were rejected."
"We were forced to go forward with submissions that we feel we can defend in a hearing. It's not a personal thing. We just have a business disagreement," Ash said.
Both sides can continue negotiating until the date of the hearings scheduled for Feb. 1-21.
Ohka was 11-9 with a 4.04 ERA in a total of 32 games for the Washington Nationals and the Brewers last year.
In the past, Ohka and Hideo Nomo have been the only Japanese players in the majors who have filed for salary arbitration, when they were with the Montreal Expos and the New York Mets, respectively. Both pitchers reached a settlement before the arbitration began.