There was a surprising uptick in non-tenders all around baseball today, and that included a surprise non-tender on the Cubs: Ronald Torreyes.
The Cubs’ other seven arbitration-eligible players (including Addison Russell) received contract tenders for 2019, but Torreyes – whom the Cubs just acquired in trade this week, and whose presence made it all the more understandable that the Cubs would part with Tommy La Stella – was not tendered. Interesting.
Perhaps the Cubs thought they could trade for him and then get him to agree to a contract for 2019 at $X … but then that didn’t happen, so they non-tendered him. Certainly unusual to see. Given the high volume of non-tenders around baseball, it’s also possible that the Cubs saw some other back-up middle infield types that they’d rather go after. I guess it’s also possible they wanted insurance this week in case they were able to trade Addison Russell. Which didn’t happen.
The Cubs could still try to re-sign Torreyes, but he’s a free agent now.
The Cubs tendered contracts to all of their pre-arbitration players, too, with the exceptions of pitchers Allen Webster and Justin Hancock. Hopefully the Cubs already have minor league deals in place with them, because both would be nice arms to keep in a depth position for the bullpen next year.
After the moves, the Cubs’ 40-man roster stands at 36.