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Yankees Outright Chad Gaudin, Royce Ring

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The Yankees outrighted pitchers Chad Gaudin and Royce Ring to remove them from the 40-man roster, tweets Marc Carig of the Newark Star-Ledger.  Gaudin elected free agency.  Outfielder Melky Mesa was added to the 40-man.

Gaudin, 28 in March, was named by MLBTR as a non-tender candidate earlier today.  He didn't make it that far after posting a 5.65 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 2.2 HR/9, and 39.2% groundball rate in 65.3 innings for the Yankees and Athletics this year.

Ring, a lefty reliever, turns 30 in December.  He spent most of the season at Triple-A, posting a 1.93 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, and 0.4 HR/9 in 42 innings.

White Sox Re-Sign Omar Vizquel

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The White Sox re-signed infielder Omar Vizquel to a one-year deal, according to the team's Twitter feed.  The deal is worth $1.75MM, tweets MLB.com's Scott Merkin.

Vizquel, 44 in April, hit .276/.341/.331 in 391 plate appearances for the White Sox this year while earning $1.375MM.  The 14-time Gold Glove winner logged innings at second base, shortstop, and third base.

Braves Notes: Hinske, Gonzalez, Infante, Proctor

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The Braves have three free agents and three option decisions; MLB.com's Mark Bowman has the latest.

Padres Exercise Option On Adrian Gonzalez

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The Padres announced today they've exercised their $6.2MM club option for 2011 on first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.  The option reached that amount due to incentives, tweets MLB.com's Corey Brock.  Given Gonzalez's production, this was an obvious decision.

Gonzalez, 28, hit .298/.393/.511 with 31 home runs this year in 692 plate appearances.  He'll earn over $100MM as a free agent after the 2011 season, but the Padres' willingness to trade him this winter might be affected by their unexpected success in 2010.

Red Sox Hire Curt Young As Pitching Coach

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The Red Sox hired Curt Young as their new pitching coach, according to WEEI's Alex Speier.  The team already made a formal announcement.  Young, formerly of the Athletics, replaces John Farrell.  Farrell is now manager of the Blue Jays.  A few other Red Sox notes from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe…

Orioles Decline Option On Hendrickson

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The Orioles officially declined their $1.2MM club option on lefty Mark Hendrickson, according to a team press release.  They'll pay a $200K buyout instead.  The move was widely expected.

Hendrickson, a 6'9" southpaw, turned 36 in June.  This year he posted a 5.26 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 1.1 HR/9, and 42.9% groundball rate in 75.3 innings.  He deserved an ERA more like 4.18, according to Baseball Prospectus' SIERA stat.  Hendrickson's FanGraphs splits show he's been plenty effective against left-handed batters over the past few years.

Porter Joins Nats; Marlins Likely To Hire Rodriguez

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The Marlins definitely won't be hiring Bo Porter and Edwin Rodriguez's chances of remaining the team's manager are looking better and better. The Nationals announced that Porter agreed to be Jim Riggleman's third base coach, so he's no longer in the running for Florida's managerial opening. Meanwhile, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports that the Marlins are "expected" to announce that they will retain Rodriguez as manager.

Rodriguez, who appeared in 11 games for the Yankees and Padres from 1982-85, led the Marlins to a 46-46 record this year. He is the first Puerto Rican-born manager in big league history.

Porter spent last season on Arizona’s coaching staff, first as third base coach and then as bench coach. He arrived in Arizona after three seasons in the Florida organization, where he worked with current National Josh Willingham.

Non-Tender Candidates

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By our count, there are 225 arbitration eligible players.  Of those, about 80 might be considered non-tender candidates.  The deadline to decide is December 2nd, ten days earlier than years past.  Non-tendering a player makes him a free agent.

How do I define a non-tender candidate?  In my mind, it means the player has at least a 25% chance of being cut loose.  This is a subjective list, one that I may revise in a few weeks.  I've run it by a few people in the game to ensure there's nothing horribly wrong, but the list is mainly my opinion based on trying to predict non-tenders for the past several years.  The links go to non-tender candidate posts we've done.

Position players

Willy Aybar
Clint Barmes
Travis Buck
Ryan Church
Jack Cust
Matt Diaz
Edwin Encarnacion
Josh Fields
Mike Fontenot
Jeff Francoeur
Kevin Frandsen
Esteban German
Alberto Gonzalez
Tony Gwynn
Scott Hairston
J.J. Hardy
Joe Inglett
Conor Jackson
Dan Johnson
Casey Kotchman
Kevin Kouzmanoff
Ryan Langerhans
Andy LaRoche
Fred Lewis
James Loney
Jose Lopez
Andy Marte
Russell Martin
Jeff Mathis
Corky Miller
Dioner Navarro
Wil Nieves
Laynce Nix
Augie Ojeda
Ronny Paulino
Brayan Pena
Humberto Quintero
Jason Repko
Ryan Theriot
Reggie Willits
Josh Wilson
Dewayne Wise
Delwyn Young

Pitchers

Jeremy Accardo
Matt Albers
Brian Bannister
Boof Bonser
Blaine Boyer
Jared Burton
Tim Byrdak
D.J. Carrasco
Gustavo Chacin
Todd Coffey
Clay Condrey
Lance Cormier
Kyle Davies
Manny Delcarmen
Zach Duke
Chad Gaudin
Angel Guzman
J.P. Howell
Bobby Jenks
Jeff Karstens
Wil Ledezma
John Maine
Brandon McCarthy
Dustin McGowan
Andrew Miller
Zach Miner
Sergio Mitre
Dustin Moseley
Pat Neshek
Dustin Nippert
Hideki Okajima
Scott Olsen
Tony Pena
Glen Perkins
Chris Ray
George Sherrill
Joe Smith
Brian Tallet
Tyler Walker
Chien-Ming Wang
Sean White
Joel Zumaya

Tigers Decline Option On Jhonny Peralta

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The Tigers declined their $7.25MM option on shortstop Jhonny Peralta, according to the team's Twitter feed.  They'll pay a $250K buyout instead.  Via that same feed comes a quote from Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski: "We remain optimistic that a deal can be worked out between Jhonny and the club."  MLB.com's Jason Beck exchanged emails with Peralta's agent Seth Levinson, who shares Dombrowski's optimism.

Peralta, 28, is eligible for free agency for the first time in his career.  This year he hit .249/.311/.392 with 15 home runs in 615 plate appearances for the Indians and Tigers, coming to Detroit in a July 28th trade.  He played third base exclusively this year for the Indians, but spent most of his time with the Tigers at shortstop.  With Brandon Inge already locked in, the Tigers would continue to use Peralta at short.  On October 26th, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports wrote that the team is "expected to reach an agreement" with Peralta on a two-year deal, perhaps a touch less than Inge's $11.5MM.  It seems unlikely that the Tigers would offer Peralta arbitration on the November 23rd deadline, but he is a Type B free agent.

Free Agent Market For Left-handed Starters

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The free agent market for right-handed starters mainly offered innings eaters.  Here's a look at the available southpaws.

Baseball's Sixth $100MM Pitcher

He may have taken the loss in two World Series games, but Cliff Lee is still the marquee name among all free agent starting pitchers.  The 32-year-old has a 2.98 ERA, 7.2 K/9, 1.3 BB/9, and 0.61 HR/9 in 667.3 regular season innings since 2008.  He tossed 248 innings this year including the playoffs despite not making his first start until April 30th.  Lee is eligible for free agency for the first time in his career and will finally get to settle down with one team.  For more on his market, check out Mike Axisa's October 4th post.

Strong, Abbreviated Seasons

As usual, Andy Pettitte's options appear to be retirement or a return to the Yankees.  That leaves Jorge de la Rosa as the second-best lefty available and perhaps the second-best starter overall since the Dodgers locked up Ted Lilly.  As a Type A free agent, De La Rosa will cost a draft pick along with his contract.  De La Rosa, 30 in April, missed ten weeks this season with a torn tendon in his finger.  He throws hard, strikes out plenty, gets groundballs, and walks too many.

Three Semi-Interesting Names

If you dig a bit you'll find Hisanori Takahashi, Chris Capuano, and Bruce Chen as a trio of lefties capable of starting.  All three had decent peripherals as starters this year, though only Chen topped 100 innings in the role.

Hoping To Stay Healthy

Jamie Moyer and Jeff Francis managed to top 100 innings despite injuries, while Doug Davis, Erik Bedard, and Mike Hampton didn't pitch much if at all.  Francis' shoulder remains a concern, but he'll be 30 in January and may have something left to offer.

Looking For Work

Nate Robertson and Dontrelle Willis will have to prove themselves in the minors, as might Jarrod Washburn after sitting out 2010.  Rich Hill and Mark Hendrickson are in a similar boat; all of these guys should be flexible on their roles.

Non-Tender Candidates

Zach Duke, Scott Olsen, Andrew Miller, Brian Tallet, and Glen Perkins are the names to watch here.  Duke, 28 in April, has been useful at times but dealt with elbow trouble this year.  Olsen's issue was his shoulder.  Miller was once among the game's top prospects; Mike Axisa discussed his case on Saturday.

Summary

Many teams in the starting pitching hunt just won't have the cash to seriously bid for Lee.  De La Rosa will get plenty of action, but there aren't many other free agent lefties you'd plug into a rotation.

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