With revenue losses expected to result in reduced payrolls around baseball, a larger number of players than usual are expected to be let go by their current teams by tonight’s 7pm CT non-tender deadline. Some of these players could end up re-signing with their teams for salaries below what they were projected (by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) to earn through the arbitration process, or teams could end up simply opting to explore other options…with many of those options arriving on the market through this same non-tender process.
You can track all of the arbitration and non-tender activity here, and we’ll also run through the list of American League players who have been let go in this post. (The NL list is available here.)
- In addition to Naquin, covered below, the Indians announced that they’ve non-tendered outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. and right-hander Jefry Rodriguez. Cleveland picked up DeShields in the Corey Kluber salary dump to the Rangers last winter, and he managed a tepid .252/.310/.318 slash in 137 plate appearances. Rodriguez wasn’t arb-eligible yet and didn’t pitch in the Majors this season, but the Indians obviously wanted to open the 40-man spot. He has a career 5.20 ERA and 5.29 FIP in 98 2/3 innings.
- The Rangers non-tendered utilityman Danny Santana, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports. The 30-year-old switch-hitter had a big season with Texas in 2019, but as was the case with his rookie showing in Minnesota, the results were largely BABIP-driven. Santana underwent elbow surgery in September and may not be ready for Opening Day, so his non-tender isn’t a surprise. Outfielder Scott Heineman and righty Jimmy Herget were also non-tendered, the team announced.
- Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that the Rays have non-tendered righty Edgar Garcia, who was not yet eligible for arbitration. Tampa acquired Garcia for a PTBNL in August after the Phils designated him for assignment, but he was hit hard in a small sample of work. The Rays prefer to have an open roster spot and will make Garcia a free agent.
Earlier Non-Tenders
- The Indians have non-tendered outfielder Tyler Naquin, Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com tweets. Naquin, who would have earned around $2MM in arbitration, is coming off a poor year in Cleveland. The 29-year-old slashed .218/.248/.383 with four home runs, 40 strikeouts and five walks in 141 plate appearances. Naquin joined the Indians as the 15th overall pick in 2012, but he has only provided league-average offense since debuting in 2016.
- The Royals also non-tendered Maikel Franco, as covered here. The White Sox, meanwhile, cut ties with Nomar Mazara and Carlos Rodon, as outlined here.
28% K rate doesn’t cut it for Tyler.
Non tender is tough.
Nicely done
That makes him Yankee material.
The guy who sponsored Naquin’d BR page must be pretty upset right now.
Tribe holding auditions at Progressive this weekend for outfielders.
Rob Refsnyder on his way….
Another year of throwing a handful of 5th OF or AAAA types against the wall and seeing what sticks.
Or… one comes back in the Lindor trade
Or…another 5th OF comes back in the Lindor trade like the Kluber and Clevinger trades…
Are you a Tribe fan or not?
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Tribe OF this year.. but it probably isn’t going to be pretty.
So what else is new?
Indians outfield will get restocked with a Lindor trade, especially if it’s to the Mets.
Outside of Jose Ramirez, Roberto Perez and their starting pitching, the Indians are a train wreck, thanks to an owner who can’t afford to be a MLB owner.
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any other team tenders Naquin. great player when healthy.
He’s never healthy, and even when he is he’s just an okay player. He’s definitely rosterable, but the Indians have a million outfielders that aren’t much better or worse than he is and they have them for the minimum. If you’re gonna cobble together a mediocre outfield, you might as well spend a little less to do it.
I am curious why you think that. He hasn’t shown that he can stay healthy and has never really put together good offensive numbers – aside from his rookie year. Even in that solid offensive rookie campaign in 2016, he K’d in 35% of his ABs and had a BABIP of greater than .400.
He has a good arm and is a pretty solid defender but that bat doesn’t seem worthy of a corner OF spot. I feel like you could get the same production and better upside by plugging Daniel Johnson in to RF, at a fraction of the cost.
Naquin will always have that awesome walk-off inside-the-park HR he hit as a rookie.
Massive assist to Melvin Upton for that one
And the irony of the term “walk off” when a guy is sprinting harder and longer than any other play in baseball.
Guess I’ll have to choose another favorite Tribe player now. 🙁
I don’t know who will be in the CLE OF next year, but this was solid common sense. At 29 Naquin is what he is, and I’d pass on him even at league minimum given his injury history and pedestrian offensive numbers. Players better than Naquin are a dime a dozen, so this move was a no-brainer.
Naquin is made of glass,can’t stay on the field.
Why DeSheilds isn’t suffering the same fate is a mystery.
DeShields was not officially charged with any errors last year, but at times he looked lost and misplayed balls into “hits”.
SF need OF help?
Someone will take a flyer on Middleton. He’s still pretty young and has only pitched 19.2 innings since his return.
I hope the Angels have a few more on the list that that are non tendering.
Andriese, Anderson and Robles for example.
Noe Ramirez should have been on that list
Travis Shaw and AJ Cole non tendered by the Blue Jays. Surprised Cole was dropped. He pitched well and was inexpensive. Certainly do not agree with that decision on Cole.
With Danny Santana Non-tendered, who plays CF for TEX?
Tavares
And yet tigers haven’t cut there dead weight yet
Eh,while we’re at it why not dump Bradley Zimmer too. Talk about more dead wood. He’s already in his late 20,s. How long do you wait. The guy’s made out of glass. Always injured and except for a flash here and there his hitting has been awful. He makes Naquin look good.
Middleton should be jumped on by the Phillies. He was just coming into his own before TJS.
Mets should take a flier on DeShields for depth in center and his speed.
I would like to see the Cleveland baseball team renamed as the Cleveland Plaindealers.
Cleveland should sign Eddie Rosario to play centerfield. 119 Home Runs and 388 RBIs in 697 MLB games. If you want to win more games, you need to sign more Eddies.