For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Blue Jays appear headed to salary arbitration.

The club could not come to terms with two of their arbitration-eligible players — newly-acquired third baseman Josh Donaldson and backup infielder Danny Valencia — before Friday’s deadline to exchange arbitration figures.

Since the Jays are one of a handful of teams that practice a “file-to-trial” policy — in that once figures are exchanged between the team and the player, negotiations cease and both sides prepare for a hearing — they are expected to argue their case to an independent arbitrator next month.

With regards to Donaldson, the two sides are $1.45 million (U.S.) apart, according to CBS Sports baseball columnist Jon Heyman, who reported that Donaldson filed at $5.75 million and the Jays countered with $4.3 million.

To be clear, regardless of the arbitrator’s ruling, the player remains under team control. His salary for the upcoming season is all that’s in question.

There also remains a chance the Jays could negotiate a multi-year deal with Donaldson — a late-blooming all-star, acquired last month in a blockbuster trade with the Oakland A’s — who won’t become a free agent until 2019. But given he is already under team control for four more seasons, that seems unlikely.

The last time the Jays went to arbitration with one of their players was in 1997, when they won their case against middling reliever Bill Risley. So these will be the first cases of general manager Alex Anthopoulos’s tenure.

In a conference call with reporters on Friday evening, Anthopoulos said negotiations were amicable, but the team and player were far apart from the outset, in both cases.

“Sometimes you need to have a third-party to settle these things,” he said. “One way or another we’ll have a salary for him.”

The Jays are apparently just $425,000 apart with Valencia, according to Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, who reported the Jays filed at $1.25 million while Valencia was at $1.675.

This is the first year of arbitration-eligibility for both players.

Meanwhile, the Jays avoided arbitration with their three other eligible players, inking one-year deals with left-handed reliever Brett Cecil, Canadian outfielder Michael Saunders and right-hander Marco Estrada.

Saunders, a native of Victoria, B.C., signed for $2.875 million, while Estrada agreed to a $3.9-million deal. Both players were acquired via trade this off-season: Estrada from the Milwaukee Brewers for long-time Blue Jay, Adam Lind; and Saunders via Seattle for left-hander J.A. Happ.

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Cecil signed a one-year, $2.475-million deal on Thursday.

Saunders stands to be the Jays’ starting left-fielder next season, taking over for Melky Cabrera, who departed via free agency. Estrada, who made 18 starts and 21 relief appearances for the Brewers, figures to be a swingman and long reliever.