Today is non-tender day

Welcome to non-tender day, everybody. Yes, today is the deadline for teams
to decide whether to tender
contracts to unsigned players on their 40-man roster.

It’s usually done
with a player between three and six years of service time coming off injury or a team simply doesn’t feel the player is worth a
new contract. However, this winter we have a number of teams (I’m looking at you, Padres and Reds) who would
prefer not to keep a productive player because of a considerable jump in salary.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve profiled a few of the most likely non-tenders (Kelly Shoppach, Garrett Atkins, Kelly Johnson) and
even though Shoppach was recently traded to the Rays, as a result, his new teammate Dioner
Navarro is now one of the more likely names on the chopping block.

Here are some
other non-tender candidates of note, complete with ’09 stats:

Kevin Correia (Padres) – 12-11, 3.98 ERA

Jack Cust (Athletics) – .240/.356/.417 with 25 home runs and 70 RBI

Chien-Ming Wang (Yankees) – 1-6, 9.64 ERA

John Buck (Royals) – .247/.299/.484 with eight home runs and 36 RBI

Jonny Gomes (Reds) – .267/.338/.541 with 20 home runs and 51 RBI

D.J. Carrasco (White Sox) – 3.76 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in 93 1/3 innings

See any good fits for your team? Keep it here throughout the day for the non-tenders as they roll in.

The Yankees announced that the club has acquired starter James Paxton from the Mariners in exchange for three prospects: pitcher Justus Sheffield, outfielder Dom Thompson-Williams, and pitcher Erik Swanson.

Paxton, 30, has been among the game’s better starters over the past few years. In 2018, he went 11-6 with a 3.76 ERA and a 208/42 K/BB ratio in 160 1/3 innings. The lefty has two more years of arbitration eligibility remaining after earning $4.9 million this past season.

Sheffield, 22, is the headliner in the Mariners’ return. He made his major league debut in September for the Yankees, pitching 2 2/3 innings across three appearances. Two of those appearances were scoreless; in the third, he gave up a three-run home run to J.D. Martinez, certainly not an uncommon result among pitchers. MLB Pipeline rates Sheffield as the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect and No. 31 overall in baseball.

Thompson-Williams, 23, was selected by the Yankees in the fifth round of the 2016 draft. This past season, between Single-A Charleston and High-A Tampa, he hit .299/.363/.546 with 22 home runs, 74 RBI, 63 runs scored, and 20 stolen bases in 415 plate appearances. He was not among the Yankees’ top-30 prospects, per MLB Pipeline.

Swanson, 25, was selected by the Yankees in the eighth round of the 2014 draft. He spent most of his 2018 campaign between Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Overall, he posted a 2.66 ERA with a 139/29 K/BB ratio in 121 2/3 innings. MLB Pipeline rated him No. 22 in the Yankees’ system.

This trade comes as no surprise as the Yankees clearly wanted to upgrade the starting rotation and the Mariners seemed motivated to trade Paxton this offseason. To the Mariners’ credit, they got a solid return for Paxton, as Sheffield likely becomes the organization’s No. 1 prospect. The only worries about this trade for the Yankees is how Paxton will fare in the more hitter-friendly confines of Yankee Stadium compared to the spacious Safeco Field, and Paxton’s durability. Paxton has made more than 20 starts in a season just twice in his career — the last two years (24 and 28). The Yankees are likely not done adding, however. Expect even more new faces before the start of spring training.

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