Players Tendered Contracts
Midnight ET is the non-tender deadline, so we'll keep track of all the players who are offered and/or agreed to contracts today in this post. Keep coming back throughout the day for updates.
- Washington tendered contracts to Josh Willingham, Jesus Flores, Wil Nieves, Jason Bergmann, and Sean Burnett.
- Zach Duke was tendered an offer by the Pirates.
- The Marlins reached an agreement with Ronny Paulino. The deal will be for one-year, $1.1MM.
- The Royals avoided arbitration by reaching one year deals with Brian Bannister ($2.3MM) Roman Colon ($660K), and Kyle Davies ($1.8MM).
- Dioner Navarro will remain with the Rays on a one-year deal worth $2.1MM.
- The White Sox will offer contracts to Bobby Jenks, John Danks, Carlos Quentin, and Tony Pena.
- Milwaukee will tender offers to six players: Dave Bush, Carlos Villanueva, Todd Coffey, Jody Gerut, Corey Hart, and Carlos Gomez.
- Toronto will tender an offer to Jeremy Accardo.
- Kevin Correia will remain with the Padres for one-year, $3.6MM.
- The Rangers have signed Esteban German to a 2010 contract. He'll earn $600K in the majors and $200K in the minors. They offered contracts to their other arbitration-eligible players including Scott Feldman, Chris Ray, Frank Francisco, C.J. Wilson, Dustin Nippert, Brandon McCarthy, and Josh Hamilton.
- Tampa Bay avoided arbitration with Lance Cormier by inking him to a one-year deal. The contract will pay Cormier $1.2MM.
- The Twins will tender contracts to all 30 unsigned players on their 40-man roster. That means Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier, J.J. Hardy, Brendan Harris, Francisco Liriano, Pat Neshek, Delmon Young, and many more figure to be in the Twins' plans in 2010.
- The following eight Cubs will receive offers from the team: Carlos Marmol, Ryan Theriot, Jeff Baker, Angel Guzman, Sean Marshall, Koyie Hill, Tom Gorzelanny, and Mike Fontenot.
- Atlanta tendered offers to relievers Peter Moylan and Boone Logan.
- The Marlins will tender offers to almost all of their arbitration-eligible players – Dan Uggla, Jorge Cantu, Ricky Nolasco, Cody Ross, Josh Johnson, Leo Nunez, and Renyel Pinto.
- The Astros will tender offers to all remaining arbitration-eligible players. This means Michael Bourn, Hunter Pence, Wandy Rodriguez, Matt Lindstrom, Tim Byrdak, Chris Sampson, Jeff Keppinger, and Humberto Quintero are invited back.
- Matt Albers and Cla Meredith have agreed to terms with the Orioles. Albers' deal is worth $.68MM for one-year. Meanwhile, Meredith will recieve $.85MM in 2010.
- Randy Choate agreed to a one year deal. Terms of the deal are one-year, $700K.
Heyman On Figgins, Pineiro, Braves
SI's Jon Heyman reports from Chicago, where the GM Meetings are wrapping up…
- The Phillies are "intent on pursuing Chone Figgins hard," while the Mets are also fans of the Seth Levinson client. The Angels still hope to re-sign Figgins. Joel Sherman of the New York Post has more on the Mets' interest, explaining that moving Luis Castillo would make signing Figgins easier. Sherman thought another reasonable addition for the Mets might be Carlos Lee, but his idea was shot down by Ed Wade and a Mets official.
- Heyman senses mixed signals with the Mets and Matt Holliday – Omar Minaya loves the player, but the money required will be huge and the Mets might be better-served spreading it around.
- The Mets are interested in Joel Pineiro, and Minaya met with his agent Arn Tellem.
- On Page 2 of the article, Heyman quotes a couple new Scott Boras gems.
- Braves GM Frank Wren admitted he'll field offers on his starting pitching excess. It appears inevitable that the Braves will trade one starter, Derek Lowe or Javier Vazquez according to MLB.com's Mark Bowman.
- My Billy Wagner-Cubs idea should probably be put to bed, as Jim Hendry said he wouldn't spend a lot of money on a closer given Carlos Marmol's talent. Marmol himself is due a large arbitration raise.
Cubs Rumors: Marmol, Payroll, Theriot
Bruce Miles of The Daily Herald has a few tidbits of information about the Chicago Cubs in his latest blog post.
Miles notes that the Cubs have an unusually high number of arbitration-eligible players this offseason, and singles out Carlos Marmol as an important case. Miles figures that the Cubs and Marmol's agent Barry Praver could disagree about the reliever's value, since his holds total and opponents' average are so strong, while his control is so unpredictable. The Cubs haven't had an arbitration case go to a hearing since early in the 1990s, but this one is a candidate for it.
Miles also writes that the number of raises through arbitration could affect the Cubs' payroll flexibility. GM Jim Hendry points out that since most of the players are in the first year of arbitration eligibility, there shouldn't be many massive raises, but says, "You do have guys that certainly are going to command an increase in salary, and yeah, you have to factor that all in with your total payroll. We'll see what the numbers look like."
Hendry was also asked whether middle infield was a priority this winter, and replies: "Not necessarily. I'm very happy with Ryan [Theriot]." He adds that Mike Fontenot and Aaron Miles had disappointing 2009 seasons, but that he expects them to bounce back next year.
Thursday Pre-Arbitration Signings
7:41pm: The Miami Herald has a list of eight players who agreed to terms with the A’s for 2009. Daric Barton, Kurt Suzuki, Dallas Braden, Dana Eveland, Gio Gonzalez, Sean Gallagher, Henry Rodriguez and Landon Powell all agreed to one-year contracts.
12:27pm: According to a press release, via the Miami Herald, the Brewers have inked Tony Gwynn Jr., Manny Parra, Hernan Iribarren and Chase Wright to one-year contracts.
11:48am: The Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett has a few more from the Angels. Howie Kendrick, Dustin Moseley, Kevin Jepsen and Matt Brown have been signed to ’09 contracts.
9:53am: MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert reports that the Diamondbacks have agreed to one-year contracts with Yusmeiro Petit, Leo Rosales and Kyler Newby. They’ll each make around $400K this year.
9:50am: According to a press release, via the Miami Herald, the Cubs have now settled with all 20 of their pre-arbitration players. Sean Marshall, Mike Fontenot and Micah Hoffpauir are some of the bigger names on the list.
9:49am: Jose De Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle reports that the Astros have renewed Hunter Pence‘s contract. He’ll earn $450K in ’09.
9:41am: SI.com’s Jon Heyman has a few more pre-arbitration signings. 2008 Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum was inked for $650K, Angels pitcher Joe Saunders settled for $475K, Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol for $575K and Cubs infielder Ryan Theriot for $500K.
These are all guys without enough MLB service time to be eligible for salary arbitration.
Cafardo’s Latest: Crawford, Haren
The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo has a new colum up this morning; let’s check it out.
- The Carl Crawford/Cubs thing won’t die. Cafardo says the Cubs are after him, possibly offering a package starting with Rich Hill and Carlos Marmol. This rumor originated with Bruce Levine a few days ago, though Roger Mooney dismissed it yesterday.
- While the Red Sox have discussed Miguel Cabrera with the Marlins, Cafardo believes they might instead be eyeing a blockbuster for Johan Santana or Dan Haren. As if the Red Sox need more pitching.