As of this moment, with the offseason upon us, several Cubs are no longer Cubs, automatically becoming free agents:
Each of those players can, of course, still re-sign with the Cubs, but they are now officially off the 40-man roster (which stands at 34). They can sign with new teams starting this weekend.
We have a deeper discussion on the free agents here, though I expect the Cubs to talk to Chavez and De La Rosa, at a minimum, about re-upping.
The Cubs also have options decisions this week (traditionally due by the end of the day on Friday, but they can and often do come sooner), which could add to the free agent pool. The decisions come on Cole Hamels, Jose Quintana, Pedro Strop, and Brandon Kintzler. The middle two are obvious pick-ups at $10.5 million and $6.25 million, respectively, while Kintzler is an obvious decline at $10 million (though he will then likely pick up his own $5 million player option). Hamels is the tough one, and we’ll discuss that more soon.