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Baseball's non-tender deadline is tomorrow at 11pm CST, and MLBTR will of course have full coverage.  Arbitration-eligible players, who typically have at least three but fewer than six years of big league service time, are sometimes cut loose to become free agents before reaching six years.  That's non-tendering – the player was not tendered a contract by his team.  A team can non-tender a player for various reasons, but primarily it's done because the player is injured or the team believes he wouldn't be worth his salary the following year.  Most arbitration-eligible players tendered contracts get raises, even after subpar seasons.

David Ortiz, Rick Ankiel, Joel Pineiro, Ryan Franklin, David Eckstein, and Jayson Werth are some of the better-known non-tenders of recent years.  A year ago the more interesting names included Ty Wigginton, Joe Nelson, Willy Taveras, Jonny Gomes, and Takashi Saito.

There's talk the free agent market will be flooded with more non-tenders than usual tomorrow, but I'm skeptical.  We came up with about 35 candidates, several of whom will be tendered contracts.  Here are the more interesting names that stand a chance to be non-tendered:

• Kevin Correia, SP - At this point it appears Correia will either be non-tendered or traded, because the Padres do not want to give him a raise on this year's $1.1MM salary.  Correia made 33 starts with a 3.91 ERA, so he'll make decent money on the open market as a mid to back-rotation starter.
• Garrett Atkins, 1B/3B - He has the name value, but his defense and ability to hit away from Coors are in question.  This year, he didn't hit at Coors either.
• D.J. Carrasco, RP - Signed by the White Sox to a minor league deal in January of '08, Carrasco led all of baseball this year with 89.3 relief innings.  His controllable stats weren't all that different from Brandon Lyon's.
• John Buck, C – Buck doesn't seem much worse than the veteran catchers currently entertaining two-year offers, and he's only 29.  He's shown flashes of power at times.
• Jack Cust, DH/OF – Cust is the AL strikeout leader for three years running, but he's also hit at least 25 home runs and drawn at least 90 walks in each of those seasons.  He'd fit best in a DH role.
• Ryan Garko, 1B - Garko, 29 in January, has some decent years under his belt but struggled after being traded to the Giants this year.  He still handles lefties well.
• Chad Gaudin, SP/RP - Gaudin whiffed a batter per inning before being traded to the Yankees this year, though his control is suspect.  He earned $2MM this year.
• Kelly Johnson, 2B – Dealing with a wrist injury, Johnson hit .224/.303/.389 and lost the starting second base job in Atlanta.  He's an interesting pickup given his offensive success in the two years prior.  Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says the Braves remain undecided on Johnson, with a tender-and-trade not out of the question.
• Dioner Navarro, C – The Rays have Kelly Shoppach now, so they may prefer not to pay Navarro $2MM+.  Navarro had a decent year in '08 at .295/.349/.407.
• Brian Tallet, SP/RP – The 32-year-old lefty has control issues but had some respectable years out of Toronto's pen prior to making 25 starts this year.  His numbers last year were better than John Grabow's this year.
• Chien-Ming Wang, SP – Wang, 30 in March, had fine years in '06 and '07 as the Yankees' mid-rotation groundball specialist.  He had shoulder surgery in July, so the Yankees will non-tender him rather than pay anything close to this year's $5MM salary.
• Jonny Gomes, OF – Like Correia, Gomes would only be non-tendered out of cheapness.  He hit .267/.338/.541 in 314 plate appearances for the Reds this year, though he did get to face lefties 35% of the time.

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The 2009 Winter Meetings in Indianapolis have drawn to a close.  The volume of hot stove information coming out of this event was staggering, in no small part because of Twitter.  The highlights are below.

Free Agent Signings

• The Reds signed Chris Burke to a minor league deal.
• The Astros signed third baseman Pedro Feliz to a one-year, $4.5MM deal.
• The Astros signed reliever Gary Majewski to a minor league deal worth $650K in the Majors.
• The Mariners re-signed shortstop Josh Wilson to a minor league deal.
• The Astros reached an agreement with reliever Brandon Lyon on a three-year, $15MM deal, netting the Tigers a supplemental draft pick.
• Starter Rich Harden reached an agreement with the Rangers.  Harden will get $6.5MM plus incentives in 2010, and has an $11MM mutual option for '11 with a $1MM buyout.
• The Mariners signed outfielder Corey Patterson to a minor league deal.
• The Brewers reached an agreement with reliever LaTroy Hawkins on a two-year, $7.5MM deal.
• The Pirates signed shortstop Bobby Crosby to a one-year deal worth $1MM with $500K in incentives.
• The Yankees re-signed starter Andy Pettitte to a one-year, $11.75MM deal.
• The Brewers agreed to a three-year, $29.75MM deal with starter Randy Wolf that includes a fourth-year club option.
• The Cardinals signed starter Brad Penny to a one-year deal worth $7.5MM, with another $1.5MM in incentives.
• The Phillies reached an agreement with infielder Ross Gload on a two-year deal.
• The Nationals signed outfielder Jerry Owens to a minor league deal.
• The Tigers signed catcher Robinzon Diaz.
• The Mets signed first baseman Mike Hessman to a minor league deal.
• The Nationals signed catcher Ivan Rodriguez to a two-year, $6MM deal.
• The Red Sox signed pitchers Fabio Castro and Kason Gabbard.
• The Tigers re-signed shortstop Adam Everett to a one-year, $1.55MM deal.
• The Red Sox signed reliever Scott Atchison out of Japan to a one-year deal worth $420K, with two club options.
• The Pirates signed reliever Vinnie Chulk to a minor league deal.

Trades

• The Red Sox and Rangers agreed in principle to a trade that would send Mike Lowell and cash to the Rangers for Max Ramirez.
• Pitcher Boof Bonser was designated for assignment by the Twins on Tuesday and acquired by the Red Sox on Thursday for a player to be named later.
• Reliever Rafael Soriano accepted arbitration Monday night, and the Braves later traded him to the Rays for reliever Jesse Chavez.
• The Rangers traded starter Kevin Millwood and $3MM to the Orioles for reliever Chris Ray and Rule 5 pick Benjamin Snyder.
• The Astros acquired reliever Matt Lindstrom from the Marlins for pitcher Robert Bono, shortstop Luis Bryan, and Rule 5 pick/third baseman Jorge Jimenez.
• The Yankees acquired Curtis Granderson, the D'Backs acquired Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy, and the Tigers acquired Max Scherzer, Daniel Schlereth, Phil Coke, and Austin Jackson in a three-team blockbuster.
• The Nationals acquired reliever Brian Bruney from the Yankees for Rule 5 pick/outfielder Jamie Hoffmann.  
• The Rangers acquired lefty Clay Rapada from the Tigers for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

New Free Agents

• The A's released reliever Santiago Casilla.
• First baseman/DH Mike Jacobs and lefty John Bale were released by the Royals.
• The Padres released pitcher Eulogio De La Cruz.
• The Nationals released reliever Saul Rivera.

Other Stuff

• The Rockies signed Chris Iannetta to a three-year deal worth more than $8MM.
• 17 players were taken in the first round of the Rule 5 draft.
• The Red Sox claimed pitcher Ramon Ramirez off waivers from the Rays.
• Peter Gammons will leave ESPN to work for MLB.com, MLB Network, and NESN. 
• The Braves designated outfielder Ryan Church for assignment.
• The White Sox agreed to a three-year deal with third baseman Mark Teahen, buying out two arbitration years and one free agent year for a total of $14MM.
• Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Soriano, and Carl Pavano accepted arbitration offers, while everyone else declined.
• The Rockies sold Matt Murton's rights to the Hanshin Tigers.
• The Brewers claimed infielder Luis Cruz off waivers from the Pirates.

A look at the first round of the Rule 5 draft…

• Joel Sherman of the New York Post says that the Yankees will take outfielder Jamie Hoffmann from the Dodgers with the first pick, which they acquired from the Nationals for Brian Bruney earlier this week.
• The Pirates selected outfielder John Raynor from the Marlins, tweets MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch.
• The Orioles picked lefty Benjamin Snyder from the Giants, and he'll go to the Rangers as part of the Kevin Millwood deal tweets Evan Grant.
• The Royals selected lefty Edgar Osuna from the Braves, tweets Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star.
• The Indians selected righty Hector Ambriz from the D'Backs, tweets MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince.
• The D'Backs took lefty Zach Kroenke from the Yankees, reports MLB.com's Bryan Hoch.  The Marlins took Kroenke from the Yanks in the Rule 5 a year ago but returned him.
• The Mets took righty Carlos Monasterios from the Phillies, tweets Ken Davidoff of Newsday.  Monasterios was then traded to the Dodgers for cash, reports Newsday's David Lennon. 
• The Astros took third baseman Jorge Jimenez from the Red Sox, and they'll ship him to Florida as part of the Matt Lindstrom deal reports Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald.
• The A's took righty Bobby Cassevah from the Angels, says Ben Badler of Baseball America.
• The Jays took righty Zech Zinicola from the Nationals, says MLB.com's Jordan Bastian.
• The Brewers took lefty Chuck Lofgren from the Indians, says Castrovince.
• The Cubs took pitcher Mike Parisi from the Cardinals, says Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  He had Tommy John surgery in August of '08.
• The Rays took lefty Armando Zerpa from the Red Sox, says Baseball America's John Manuel.  The Dodgers then acquired Zerpa for cash, says Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times. 
• The Giants took Orioles righty Steve Johnson, reports Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News.  Johnson was part of the George Sherrill trade with the Dodgers.
• The Cardinals took lefty Ben Jukich from the Reds, says MLB.com's Matthew Leach.
• The Phillies took righty Ken Herndon from the Angels, reports MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.
• The Mariners took pitcher Kanekoa Texeira from the Yankees, says Marc Carig of the Newark Star-Ledger. Texeira was part of the Nick Swisher trade with the White Sox.
• J.J. Cooper of Baseball America has blurbs on each of the 17 players chosen.

10:23pm: Gammons will join MLB.com, the MLB Network and NESN.com. He gives MLBTR a shout out in this Boston Globe article, saying "I love stuff like MLBTradeRumors.com." We sure look forward to watching his broadcasts and reading his work.

2:08pm: Surprising press release today: legendary journalist Peter Gammons will leave ESPN to pursue other endeavors after the Winter Meetings.  Hopefully Gammons will continue writing for another outlet.

MLBTR is pulling out all the stops for our fifth time covering baseball's Winter Meetings, which are taking place in Indianapolis this year.  For the first time, we've got 24/7 coverage of the Meetings.  If news of a signing breaks at 4am, we'll be on it just as if it had broken at 4pm.  Below is a refresher on how to use the site and important links.

If you want to take it old school, just refresh the page to see the latest stories up top.  If you get to the bottom of the website you can hit Previous Entries for more. Other ways to get your MLBTR fix:

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• Check out Tim Dierkes' Top 50 Free Agents with destination predictions.
• Click here to see who's eligible for free agency after the 2010 season.
• Fun links: Ben Nicholson-Smith's Trades of the Decade series, Scott Boras clients, non-tender candidates, offseason outlooks by team, free agent market analysis by position, trade market analysis by position, and important dates.
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Looking to start your own hot stove discussions with other MLBTR fans?  Try our new MLBTR Forums!  We've got sections for trade rumors, free agents, the amateur draft, general baseball, fantasy baseball, and each of the 30 teams.  You can even use the off-topic section to talk about other sports, movies, or whatever.  Sign up today! 

Here's a link to our current free agents list, which lost Brad Penny, Ivan Rodriguez, Adam Everett, Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Soriano, and Carl Pavano yesterday but gained Saul Rivera.  We'll keep it up-to-date, as always.

We are trying out something new here at MLBTR: a Top Stories ticker.  As you can see there is a ticker above the first post, where the top headlines fade in and out.  For the time being the Top Stories section on the righthand sidebar will remain as well.  As always, MLBTR is best viewed with Firefox.

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