Non-Tenders

Update (10:00pm CT): Scratch Navarro off the non-tender candidates list. He signed a deal tonight with the Rays. Also, Wang has officially been non-tendered by the Yankees.

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Earlier, we mentioned that the Dodgers will be tendering contracts to all nine of their arbitration-eligible players before tonights midnight ET deadline. But there could be some players non-tendered by other teams who could be of interest to the Dodgers. And with a little over three and a half hours from said deadline, several teams have already announced they won't be tendering contracts to some of their players.

Of note as far as the Dodgers are concerned, the Braves have non-tendered second baseman Kelly Johnson. Johnson lost his starting job last season when he struggled early on and often and was eventually replaced by Martin Prado. While he hasn't been very consistent, he does possess some power for a second baseman as noted by his 16 and 12 home runs respectively in 2007 and 2008. Could he be a solution for the Dodgers at second base? Perhaps, but how much better are his career numbers compared to Blake DeWitt? Not much. And if the Dodgers do find a need for Johnson, maybe a DeWitt-Johnson platoon is in line.

Chien-Ming Wang has also been non-tendered by the Yankees (unofficially; the Yankees have yet to confirm it), essentially making him a free agent. He had solid 2006 and 2007 season winning 19 games both seasons with an ERA in the upper three's, and was on his way to another stellar season in 2008 before a freak base-running injury ended his season, but he was dreadful in 2009. Wang had major problems finding the strike zone whenever he did pitch in 2009, and when he did, he was hit hard, and scored upon frequently.

Personally I'm not a big fan of Wang, but the Dodgers no doubt need rotation depth. His 1-6 record and 9.64 ERA in 2009 might be a tad mis-leading and maybe a change of scenery could do him some good.

I was just about to mention another pitcher who could be traded or non-tendered before tonight's deadline, but San Diego's Kevin Correia just re-upped with the Padres as I was typing this out. He probably would have been a better fit than Wang, in my opinion, but maybe the Dodgers will take a look at Wang either way.

Yesterday, when MLB Trade Rumors posted a list of non-tender candidates, I saw former Dodger catcher Dioner Navarro on the list as a candidate to be non-tendered by the Rays. Could there be a Dodger reunion in store? There's no telling as the Dodgers seem to be content with Russell Martin as the everyday catcher. And I would think Navarro would prefer to play everyday than sit and back-up the guy who essentially replaced him 2006 after he got hurt, and eventually demoted. Both players struggled offensively last season. Just a thought.