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Marvin Miller Dies

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Marvin Miller, the first executive director of the MLB Players Association, died this morning at the age of 95, Yahoo's Jeff Passan reports. Condolences to Miller's family and the MLBPA.

“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of Marvin Miller,” current MLBPA executive director Michael Weiner said in a public statement. “All players -– past, present and future -– owe a debt of gratitude to Marvin, and his influence transcends baseball. Marvin, without question, is largely responsible for ushering in the modern era of sports, which has resulted in tremendous benefits to players, owners and fans of all sports."

Miller led the MLBPA from its inception in 1966 until 1982. Under Miller the MLBPA worked to overturn baseball's reserve clause in a decision that led to free agency. The association also obtained many other rights for players, including the right to salary arbitration.

MLBTR Seeking iPhone 5 Testers

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Our Baseball Trade Rumors iPhone app is in the process of being updated to fill the larger screen of the iPhone 5.  If you own an iPhone 5 and would like to help us test the new version of the app, please email mlbtriphoneapp@gmail.com and include your UDID in the email.  We'll take the first 20 or so people.  Thanks for your consideration.

Our current iPhone/iPad app can be purchased here.

MLBTR Seeking Windows 8 App Developer

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It's time for an MLB Trade Rumors Windows 8 app!  Given that the operating system has only been out for a short period of time, experience in Windows 8 app development is hard to come by.  Nonetheless, we plan to forge ahead and find a strong candidate to create this application.  Regular MLBTR readership is a bonus.  If you're interested, please email mlbtrwindows8@gmail.com with your qualifications.

You can purchase our iPhone/iPad app here and our Android app here.

Non-Tender Tracker

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Players on 40-man rosters with at least two years and 139 days of Major League service and less than six full years are considered arbitration eligible, assuming they are not already signed to a contract covering 2013.  Arbitration eligible players almost always receive raises, and sometimes a player's expected salary exceeds his expected value.  Such players are non-tendered, meaning they are not offered contracts by their teams and become free agents.  The deadline for these decisions comes earlier than usual this year, on November 30th.

A handful of Major League contract-worthy players typically hit the free agent market by way of a non-tender every year.  David Ortiz and Jayson Werth were non-tendered in their careers, and in more recent years players such as Edwin Encarnacion, Bobby Jenks, Russell Martin, Joel Peralta, Chien-Ming Wang, Jeff Keppinger, Joe Saunders, Jonny Gomes, Matt Capps, John Buck, and Chris Capuano were cut loose in this way.

This year, of the 191 players currently eligible for arbitration, approximately 50 are non-tender candidates.  Click here to check out my subjective non-tender candidate list from a month ago (many of the listed players have since been cut loose).  Decent names who may become free agents next week include Mark Reynolds, Geovany Soto, Ian Stewart, Daric Barton, Ryan Sweeney, Jair Jurrjens, John Lannan, Mike Pelfrey, and Brian Wilson.

As usual, we'll be all over the November 30th non-tender deadline.  Our non-tender tracker, which allows filtering by tender status and team, is the best tool for following along.  The newly-minted free agents will be added to our 2013 MLB free agent tracker and list as well. 

Offseason Calendar

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The offseason started weeks ago, but let’s take an updated look at the offseason calendar as the news and rumors slow down for Thanksgiving. There’s a lot to keep track of in the first full offseason under the sport’s new collective bargaining agreement, so MLBTR has compiled a timeline of offseason events. Here’s what has already happened:

  • Immediately after World Series – Eligible players hit free agency
  • Three days after World Series – Option decisions due
  • Five days after World Series – Qualifying offers due
  • Six days after World Series – Free agents can sign contracts with teams other than their former clubs
  • 12 days after World Series – Players must accept or reject qualifying offers
  • November 7th – 9th - GM Meetings
  • November 20th – Deadline for setting 40-man roster in advance of Rule 5 Draft

Here’s what’s ahead:

  • November 30th – Deadline for teams to tender contracts to arbitration eligible players
  • December 3rd – 6th – Winter Meetings
  • December 6th – Rule 5 Draft takes place at Winter Meetings
  • January 18th - Teams, players exchange arbitration figures
  • February 1st – 21st -  Arbitration hearings take place in Phoenix
  • March 2nd – 11th – Teams can renew contracts of unsigned pre-arbitration eligible players

Dates via MLB.com, the Kansas City Star and USA Today.

Regular MLBTR Features

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If you're a regular MLBTR reader, you'll be familiar with our chats, our Week In Review posts and Mike Axisa's Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature. Here's some more detail on when you'll see our weekly features and exactly what to expect from them:

  • MLBTR Chats - Come join me every Wednesday at 2pm CDT to chat about the latest trades, signings and rumblings around the Major Leagues.
  • Baseball Blogs Weigh In - Every Friday morning, Mike Axisa directs you to some of the best writing on baseball blogs around the web. Whether it's opinion, stats or something else entirely, you can connect to the best of the blogosphere once a week on MLBTR. If you want to send Mike a post of yours, reach him at: mike@riveraveblues.com.
  • Week In Review - It's remarkable how much happens in seven days. Every Sunday night, Daniel Seco summarizes the week's biggest stories in our Week In Review posts.
  • MLBTR Originals - Edward Creech gathers all our original analysis and reporting in one place every Sunday night.

Multiyear Deals So Far This Offseason

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Eleven free agents have signed multiyear contracts to this point in the offseason, as MLBTR's Free Agent Tracker shows. Of the 11 players with multiyear contracts, five have agreed to terms with new teams (Gerald Laird, David Ross, Torii Hunter, Maicer Izturis and Melky Cabrera).

If recent offseasons are any indication, these 11 deals will represent approximately one quarter of the multiyear contracts signed this winter. Last offseason saw teams hand out 40 multiyear deals and the year before that included 44 contracts of two-plus years.

Still, the biggest and longest contracts have yet to be signed. So far Jake Peavy's two-year, $29MM contract with the White Sox leads the way in terms of total dollars. Izturis, Jeremy Affeldt and Brandon League are the only players to obtain three guaranteed years.

MLBTR’s tracker allows you to filter free agents by many criteria: team, position, signing status, years, and dollars. Plus, we recently made it possible to filter free agents according to whether they obtained, accepted and declined qualifying offers. You can also link to your search results, which makes them easy to share.

For the most part, our cutoff for a player's inclusion on the tracker is 50 MLB plate appearances or 20 innings pitched in 2012. We also have a basic list that shows which free agents remain available at each position.

Team Facebook/Twitter/RSS

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If you prefer your MLBTR fix limited to only your favorite team, we've got you covered.  Below are links to our team Facebook, Twitter, and RSS pages and feeds.

AL East

AL Central

AL West

NL East

NL Central

NL West

Transactions only: Twitter / RSS

2013 MLB Free Agent Tracker

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To keep track of all details related to free agent signings throughout the offseason, be sure to bookmark MLBTR's 2013 MLB Free Agent Tracker. The tracker allows you to filter free agents by many criteria: team, position, signing status, years, and dollars. Plus, we recently made it possible to filter free agents according to whether they obtained, accepted and declined qualifying offers. 

You can also link to your search results, which makes them easy to share. For example, if you're looking to know which unsigned outfielders declined qualifying offers, you're just a few clicks away from discovering the answer.

For the most part, our cutoff for a player's inclusion on the tracker is 50 MLB plate appearances or 20 innings pitched in 2012. We also have a basic list that shows which free agents remain available at each position.

MLBPA Monitoring MLB Comments

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The MLB Players Association believes some comments made by MLB team executives and other baseball employees violate the sport's collective bargaining agreement, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports. Anti-collusion language designed to prevent clubs from limiting a free agent’s value forbids clubs and their employees from publicly discussing the details of contract offers or disclosing whether an offer will be made.

The MLBPA objects to a number of recent comments, Rosenthal reports. For example, a Rangers official told USA Today the Rangers won't go beyond three years for Josh Hamilton; MLB executive Tony La Russa said on ESPN that contracts longer than six years are "scary" for teams; Yankees president Randy Levine told CBSSports.com that Rafael Soriano seeks a four-year, $60MM contract. The players' union doesn't plan to file a grievance, but MLBPA executives continue monitoring the situation, according to Rosenthal.

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