NEWSLETTER
As of this morning, players who aren’t under already under contract for 2025, and who have at least six years of big league service time, automatically become free agents. They are not permitted to sign with new teams for five days, but their agents can start sending out feelers and teams can start talking to them.
In other words, while there won’t be any free agents signing with new teams until next week at the earliest, the process begins today. Sometimes you see re-signings happen, and often times you see rumors kick up.
For the Chicago Cubs, their outgoing free agents as of this moment are Kyle Hendricks and Jorge Lopez. That’s it. Those are the only two players on the roster who aren’t under contract for 2025 and who have at least six years of big league service time.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the Cubs won’t have many more outgoing free agents. They will. It’s just that there will be some additional steps.
For example, we know that Cody Bellinger has an opt-out decision to make within the next five days, and if he does opt out – that’s the latest speculation – he, too, will become a free agent. There’s a mutual option looming on Drew Smyly, and we know that one is not going to be picked up by both sides. So he’s another soon-to-be free agent.
For the arbitration-level players, the Cubs have a number of tender decisions to make, which also yield some more outgoing free agents (some of those could come soon, if the Cubs need the 40-man spots, or some of them could come when the tender deadline arrives in a few weeks). Decisions will be required on guys like Yency Almonte, Adbert Alzolay, Colten Brewer, Jimmy Herget, Trey Wingenter, Keegan Thompson, Christian Bethancourt, Nick Madrigal, Patrick Wisdom, etc. Some calls are easy. Some are much closer.
And for pre-arbitration players, the Cubs may decide to let some guys go if they don’t feel they merit a 40-man spot all offseason. Decisions will be required on guys like Brennen Davis, Caleb Knight, Matt Mervis, Luis Vazquez, Alexander Canario, Miles Mastrobuoni, Gavin Hollowell, Enoli Paredes, Caleb Kilian, etc. Again, with some decisions being obvious, and some being more difficult.
Note that guys on the 60-day IL at this moment do not count toward the 40-man roster limit, and will not do so for another five days. At that moment, though, the Cubs have to activate (or release) those players, and otherwise accommodate them on the 40-man roster. There are currently EIGHT players on the 60-day IL, so, yes, some additional free agents are coming soon for the Cubs, one way or another.
We’ll go over the 40-man roster in the coming days to lay out what’s most likely to happen. We will also dig in on the offseason schedule, because the next five days are only the beginning of the various dates and deadlines of consequence.
