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The 5 most interesting MLB non-tenders this offseason

By Noah Yingling

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 07: Cody Bellinger #35 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates his second homerun of the game in the dugout, to take a 3-0 lead over the San Diego Padres, during the seventh inning at Dodger Stadium on August 07, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 07: Cody Bellinger #35 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates his second homerun of the game in the dugout, to take a 3-0 lead over the San Diego Padres, during the seventh inning at Dodger Stadium on August 07, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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Cody Bellinger, Los Angeles Dodgers
Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /

Friday was the non-tender deadline for MLB teams to issue contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. Most players were tendered a contract but there were dozens of players that were not tendered a contract.

As a result, those players will hit free agency. They could re-sign with the team that they finished the 2022 season with or they could decide to sign with other teams.

Some of the non-tenders were already designated for assignment in the last week, as Tuesday was the deadline for MLB teams to add prospects to their 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule V Draft. We already discussed some of the more surprising DFA’s earlier in the week and, as such, those players are not included in this list.

Here are the five most interesting MLB non-tenders from Friday.

Former Dodgers OF Cody Bellinger was an interesting MLB non-tender on Friday

It has been a huge fall from grace for Cody Bellinger, who was an All-Star, Gold Glove winner, Silver Slugger Award winner, and winner of the NL MVP Award in 2019.

He had a decent season in 2020 but he has been flat-out awful in 2021 and 2022. He was injured in 2021 as he only played in 95 games but he had an OPS+ of 44 and an rWAR of -1.5. He was better in 2022 as he was healthy (144 games) but he still only hit .210/.265/.389 with an OPS+ of 78.

In arbitration, he was slated to make about $18 million, which is way too much for a player that has been, at best, a league average player in the last two seasons (-0.3 rWAR since 2021).

Call To The Pen’s Kevin Henry looked at three possible landing spots for Bellinger on Friday.

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