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On Friday, December 12th (at midnight I believe), the non-tender deadline will occur.  Basically, that’s when teams decide whether to offer a contract to the unsigned players on their 40-man roster.  Players not tendered a contract become free agents.  Past non-tenders include David Ortiz, Rick Ankiel, Ryan Franklin, David Eckstein, and Chad Durbin.  Usually at least a few useful guys are unearthed. 

Below I’ve listed non-tender candidates for each team; it’s mostly speculative.  Feel free to debate or add names in the comments; I may add to the list based on that.  I tried to keep it to names that are at least mildly interesting.  Bedard is unlikely but I tossed him in anyway.

Brandon Backe
Denny Bautista
Erik Bedard
Matt Belisle
Angel Berroa
John Buck
Chris Burke
Daniel Cabrera
Chris Capuano
Jason Davis
Randy Flores
Jason Frasor
Chad Gaudin
Jimmy Gobble
Jonny Gomes
Aaron Miles
Duaner Sanchez
Brian Tallet
Willy Taveras

Yesterday I chatted about the hot stove with SNY’s Matthew Cerrone.  Click below to hear it.

Losing track of the arbitration offers and non-offers as the news rolls in?  Don’t worry – we’re keeping our free agent list up-to-date with all of the latest.  You can click here to read our explanation of all this Type A/Type B/arbitration stuff.

The deadline for each team’s arbitration decisions is 11pm CST tonight.  In this post I am gathering up all the rumors about those decisions.  I’ll add updates throughout the day.  Check out MLBTR reader predictions here and here.

• The San Francisco Chronicle says Frank Thomas will not be offered arbitration, perhaps because he’d like to come back.  Alan Embree might be.  MLB.com’s Mychael Urban talked to Embree, and the reliever doesn’t expect to be offered arb.
• Joel Sherman says the Yankees are wavering a bit on the decision to offer arbitration to Bobby Abreu, in fear that he could accept.
• Ken Davidoff says Abreu, Oliver Perez, and Mike Mussina will be offered arbitration.  Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi, Ivan Rodriguez, Moises Alou, and Luis Ayala will not be offered arb.  River Ave. Blues doesn’t agree with the probable Pettitte decision.  According to George King of the New York Post, the Yanks made an offer below $16MM to Pettitte a few weeks ago, which was rejected.
• Todd Zolecki says the Phillies won’t offer arb to Tom Gordon or Rudy Seanez.  He believes Jamie Moyer will get an offer but Pat Burrell may be too risky.
• Padres GM Kevin Towers says it’s "doubtful" they’ll offer arb to Trevor Hoffman.
• Mark Bowman says John Smoltz won’t be offered arb.
• Jordan Bastian says A.J. Burnett will be offered arbitration.
• Ian Browne says it’s a "near given" the Red Sox will offer arb to Jason Varitek.
• Troy E. Renck says the Rockies will offer arb to Brian Fuentes.
• Ken Rosenthal says the decisions for Adam Dunn, Kerry Wood, and Sheets could go either way.
• Gordon Wittenmyer says the Cubs won’t offer arb to Wood if they expect him to accept.  He says Bob Howry will not be offered arb.
• Scott Merkin says Juan Uribe and Ken Griffey Jr. will not be offered arb, while Orlando Cabrera probably will be.
• An arb offer to Mark Grudzielanek seems unlikely, but Dayton Moore wouldn’t rule it out.

I recently chatted about the hot stove with SNY’s Matthew Cerrone.

In line with totally revamping their starting rotation, Jerry Crasnick at ESPN.com reports that the New York Yankees have sold RHP Darrell Rasner to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Pacific League for $1 million. Rasner posted a 5.40 ERA in 24 games with the Yankees in 2008.

The cash from this deal would provide 0.7% of the money needed for the contract that has been offered to CC Sabathia.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post offers a dream rotation for the New York Yankees that includes CC Sabathia, Derek Lowe or A.J. Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain and Andy Pettitte.

Sherman acknowledges Sabathia’s strong perference to stay on the West Coast, but also notes that the Angels and Dodgers may end up having a lot of their available payroll tied up in contracts for Mark Teixeira and Manny Ramirez, respectively. Along that same line of thinking, Barry Zito’s contract in San Francisco may keep the Giants from getting too involved in the bidding for Sabathia’s services.

The article also puts Derek Lowe at the top of the Red Sox’ list of desired free agents.

Links for Saturday…

• Paul Kinzer, who represents Francisco Rodriguez, said that K-Rod “has a great fondness for the Angels” and would be open to returning.
• One of Edgar Renteria’s agents thinks that the Cardinals and Giants are good fits for Renteria.
• Padres GM Kevin Towers would like another team in on the Jake Peavy bidding now that trade talks are back to “square one.”
• Japanese pitcher Kenshin Kawakami is eligible to play baseball in North America.
• Former Athletic Donnie Murphy agreed to a minor league deal with the Orioles.
• Mike Berardino writes that the Marlins are looking to build around pitching, speed and defense.
• Cardinals GM John Mozeliak says the Cardinals will work “aggressively” to improve their bullpen.
• The Rays will soon find out whether Troy Percival will opt for surgery.
• Mike Downey writes that the White Sox could look very different in 2009.

ESPN’s Keith Law has his top 50 free agents ranked.  As always, it’s a must-read.  Law has never been afraid to go against the grain.  For example, when he wrote his 2006 list he called Barry Zito, "a third or fourth starter with the reputation of a one or two."  Anyway a few highlights from this year’s list:

• Possible upside plays: A.J. Burnett, Oliver Perez, Kerry Wood, Jeremy Affeldt, Juan Cruz, Felipe Lopez, Edgar Renteria, Gabe Kapler, Juan Rivera, Mike Hampton, and Brad Penny.
• Law’s reliever rankings are sure to get people talking, but they are justified with scouting reports.  Wood is ranked #13, then Affeldt at #15, then Francisco Rodriguez at #16, and then Brian Fuentes at #18.
• Law ranks Koji Uehara well ahead of Kenshin Kawakami.

I recently chatted on the phone with Matthew Cerrone of SNY about the latest hot stove happenings.  Click below to listen.