Although options decisions are not due for most players/teams until Friday at 4pm CT, a number of those decisions have already been made, expanding or contracting the free agent pool.
No decisions have yet been made on the Cubs’ four players with options: Cole Hamels ($20M club option, $6M buyout paid by Rangers), Jose Quintana ($10.5M club option, will be picked up), Pedro Strop ($6.25M club option, will be picked up), and Brandon Kintzler ($10M club option, will be declined, and then a $5M player option, which will probably be picked up).
Some decisions made official around the league …
Options picked up, not free agents, don’t worry about them:
Chris Sale, LHP, Boston – $15M
Paul Goldschmidt, 1B, Arizona – $14.5M
Madison Bumgarner, LHP, San Francisco – $12M
Carlos Carrasco, RHP, Cleveland – $9.75M
Sean Doolittle, LHP, Washington – $6M
Nate Jones, RHP, Chicago AL – $4.65M
Options declined, new free agents, mostly depth types:
James Shields, 36, RHP, $16M option, $2M buyout – Shields was borderline passable as a 5th/6th starter this year, but he was so brutally bad in 2016 and 2017, and will pitch next year at 37, that you couldn’t look at him as much more than veteran, minor-league-deal depth. Which, well, is not the worst thing in the world to bring to Spring Training. But not every veteran in his late 30s, who has already made a ton of money, is into that kind of thing.
Ervin Santana, 35, RHP, $14M option, $1M buyout – Fantastic for the Twins in 2016 and 2017, but dealt with injury issues in 2018, and ultimately pitched only 24.2 ugly big league innings.
Logan Morrison, 31, 1B/DH, $8M option, $1M buyout – Remember when, coming off a big 2017 season, Morrison was one of the COLLUSION! focuses as he struggled to find any kind of deal for 2018? Well, he wound up hitting .186/.276/.368 with a 74 wRC+ for the Twins. Sometimes the market knows things.
Brandon Guyer, 32, OF, $3M option, $250K buyout – Although he was a pain in the neck in the World Series in 2016, Guyer has been quite bad at the plate the last two years.