By tomorrow at 11:00 PM central time, players who are non-tender candidates must be offered a contract by there team or they become free agents. For those who don't understand how this works, a player is a non-tender candidate when they become arbitration eligible and his club determines he is not worth the salary he might command in arbitration.
A player who is non-tendered becomes a free agent and may sign with any of the 30 Major League clubs, including his former team, at any price.
With that said, we could see plenty of quality players become free agents before Saturday night. The Royals have already cut two players who were non-tender candidates—1B/DH Mike Jacobs and lefty reliever John Bale.
Jacobs was a bust this year, hitting .228 with a OBP of .297, 19 home runs, and 61 RBI in 478 plate appearances.
Bale posted some of the worst stats of his career, posting a 5.72 ERA in 28.1 innings. Hitters also hit .296 off Bale, the second highest average of his career, as well as a .390 OBP.
Expect catcher John Buck to join them on Saturday, a player who has not become the power hitter the Royals thought he would. Maybe a change of scenery would do him good.
Both of these players are gone, and by Saturday night, their will be plenty of others added to the free agent pool. The question for the Royals is—is their anybody worthy of going after if they are non-tendered? Here are a few that could fit in in Kansas City.
Kevin Correia, SP, San Diego Padres
Correia was a nice surprise for the Padres, posting a 3.91 ERA in 33 starts, and pitching 198 innings with 142 strikeouts. It was a nice bounce-back year for Correia, who came over as a free agent last year from the Giants on a minor league deal.
The Padres have already tried giving him a contract for next season, but Correia isn't excepting, meaning that unless the team trades him before tomorrow, he is expected to be non-tendered on Saturday.
The Royals need to add depth to their pitching staff, and there is upside to the Royals going after Correia. He's 28 years old and has a little over five years of big league experience. He made $1.1 million this year, and although he'll get paid more than $1.1 million, the Royals should take a shot at getting a starter with experience who is fairly inexpensive.
Correia has a low 90s fastball, a good change-up, and slider. Although none of his pitches necessarily scare hitters, Correia has the makings of a good mid-to-low end starter and should be on the Royals radar when he gets non-tendered Saturday.
Dioner Navarro, C, Tampa Bay Rays
Now we know that the Royals are on the Jason Kendall pursuit, but let's slow down a second. Navarro is coming off a down year, posting an .218 average with eight home runs and 32 RBI. The year before, the Rays went to the World Series and Navarro hit .295, had a .349 OBP, 27 doubles, and 54 RBI as the primary catcher. In the 2008 postseason, he posted an .293 batting average.
Not only did he hit well that year, but his pitchers posted a 3.90 ERA when he was behind the plate in 2008 and a 4.18 ERA in 2009. He also threw out 38 percent of base runners in 2008 and 27 percent in 2009.
The Royals are looking for an catcher, and since they aren't keeping John Buck and are not going to re-sign Miguel Olivo, they are need of a catcher, preferably one with major league experience.
Navarro is only 26 years old and has five years of service time under his belt. Wherever he is next year, I look for him to bounce back and have a good year, I would prefer the Royals to go after Navarro over a veteran like Kendall or Barajas.
John Maine, SP, New York Mets
If Maine was able to stay healthy, I don't think there is a chance he would get non-tendered, and I still think that there's a good chance he would be back. But the Mets have been waiting on Maine to be the quality pitcher he's shown at times.
He's had arm issues over the past couple of years and posted a 4.43 ERA in 81.1 innings, starting 15 games and going 7-6 in 2009. His best seasons were in 2006 and 2007, when Maine compiled a 21-15 record with a 3.75 ERA, 251 strikeouts, and held hitters to a .223 batting average.
Main will be 29 next year and still has upside. If healthy, he has shown that he can be a quality starting pitcher at the big league level, but we will have to see how he comes back from injury.
The Royals could use a pitcher like Maine to solidify it's rotation, and they may be able to get a good pitcher at a cheap price in Maine. I don't expect Maine to get more than $3 million at the most, considering that he is coming off of an injury and made $2.6 million last year. We'll see what happens.
This is a short list, but there is some good options for the Royals to look at in the non-tender market, especially before grabbing a Jason Kendall or a Mark Mulder.
Thanks to MLBtraderumors.com, Baseball-Reference.com, and ESPN.com for info.
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