Angels should be at minimum trying to lock him up to a 6 year contract buying out 2 years of FA'cy. With 1 year of non arbitration, and 3 years of arbitration, it might look like $5/$12/$16/$20 which would be close to records for arbitration years. Year 1 and 2 of FA'cy could be $25 and $30. Which would be a total of $108 million. And an AAV of $18 million.
If Arte is thinking Competitive Balance Tax is over $18 million, which the hit year 17.5% for year 1, 30% year 2, 40% year 3, 50% in year 4, or $3.15 million, $5.4 million, $7.2 million, and $9 million, is going to hurt. Then maybe Arte doesn't have the cash he makes it out to be, and is playing a high stakes poker bluff with the CoA.
This doesn't make any sense if the Angels sit on their hands again and not even negotiate a deal. Hopefully it's just season talk, and it'll ramp up in the offseason.