First, da tweetz:
Donnie Murphy signed a one-year, $825K contract with incentives, first reported by Jesse Rogers of ESPN Chicago:
Cubs avoid arbitration with Donnie Murphy. He signs a one year deal
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) December 3, 2013
Chang-Yong Lim, Mat Gamel and Daniel Bard were non-tendered. Bard chose free agency:
Lim, Bard, Gamel non tendered, per Cubs. Everyone else tendered. Kottaras and Murphy sign deals.
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) December 3, 2013
Looks like these other guys are going to arbitration:
Barney, Samardzija, Strop, Wood, Russell, Valbuena and Schierholtz tendered contracts by Cubs.
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) December 3, 2013
That’s Darwin Barney (who we thought was going to be non-tendered but it makes sense to keep him since he’s cheap and still plays good defense), Jeff Samardzija, Pedro Strop, Travis Wood, James Russell, Luis Valbuena and Nate Schierholtz. Any number of these guys could still be traded prior to the arbitration figure exchange deadline.
Kevin will look at some interesting non-tenders from other teams tomorrow. You can check this post from Obstructed View for the projected arbitration figures via MLBTR. Somehow I doubt Darwin Barney gets $2.1MM, but you never know in this new market…
Cubs 40-man roster SHOULD be at 37, we’ll update that when the dust settles. (OK, I was right.)