Nothing earth-shattering at non-tender deadline, but still a busy day in Rangers’ bullpen
Another of the annual MLB roster deadlines — the non-tender deadline — passed Monday night with the Texas Rangers committing to offer 2020 contracts to all of their arbitration-eligible players.
They even took care of one deal Monday.
But the Rangers opted to not tender contracts to right-handed relievers Ian Gibaut and Wei-Chieh Huang to help alleviate an impending crunch on the 40-man roster.
The 40-man has two openings, which are expected to go to off-season acquisitions. One will go to right-hander Kyle Gibson, whose three-year, $30 million deal will become official once he passes a physical.
He is expected to take his physical Tuesday.
The Rangers will attempt to re-sign Gibaut and Huang, who are free agents, to minor-league deals with invitations to spring training.
Only five remaining Rangers players are eligible for salary arbitration, and two of them are eligible for the first time. That includes All-Star outfielder Joey Gallo, who is projected by mlbtraderumors.com to make $4 million next season.
Nomar Mazara ($5.7 million), Danny Santana ($3.9 million) and Delino DeShields ($2.4 million) are projected to receive significant raises in their second year of arbitration, but not so much that the Rangers didn’t want to cut them loose into free agency.
Right-handed reliever Rafael Montero is also arbitration-eligible.
Another righty reliever, Nick Goody, quickly avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal worth $915,000 only hours after accepting assignment to the Rangers. They claimed him off waivers last week from the Cleveland Indians.
Goody was one of two new additions to the bullpen Monday. The Rangers made another waiver claim on right-hander Jimmy Herget, who had been designated for assignment last week by the Cincinnati Reds.
The claim forced the Rangers’ hand on Springs. The club originally designated him for assignment but later clarified that he had also been non-tendered.
This story was originally published December 2, 2019 at 7:32 PM.
