>>White Sox Decline Option on C Soto
Geovany Soto's $3 million option was declined by the Chicago White Sox, making the catcher eligible for free agency.
The NL Rookie of the Year with the Cubs in 2008, he agreed to a minor league contract with the White Sox in January that called for a $2 million salary in the major leagues. The 34-year-old Soto missed most of last season because of a right elbow injury that required surgery and batted .190 in 13 games. He will get a $250,000 buyout.
Chicago also reinstated outfielder Charlie Tilson and right-hander Zach Putnam from the 60-day disabled list on Thursday.
>>Players File For Free Agency Thursday
The 2017 baseball season came to an end Wednesday night when the Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in a surprisingly anticlimactic Game 7 of the World Series. It is the first championship in Astros history.
Baseball is a year-round sport, of course, and the offseason started Thursday with 149 players becoming free agents at 9 a.m. ET. The MLBPA announced the official free agent list Thursday afternoon.
The Cubs are losing Jake Arrieta and Wade Davis, in addition to several valuable role players. They are not expected to get into a bidding war for either Arrieta or Davis, so it'll be interesting to see how their address their pitching staff next season. At times this year, and especially in the postseason, their lack of reliable pitching depth was exposed.
Lance Lynn, Zach Duke, Juan Nicasio and Seung-Hwan Oh filed for free agency for the Cardinals.
ynn was in the rotation all year, Oh was the closer much of the last two years, Nicasio was the closer this September, and Duke was the middle innings left-on-left matchup guy. St. Louis is loaded with young arms, however, so they don't figure to be desperate to re-sign any of these four free agents.
Other top players filing for free agency Thursday include Arizona's JD Martinez, Reds All Star SS Zack Cozart, Cleveland's Jay Bruce and Carlos Santana, Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, catcher Jonathan Lucroy and first baseman Mark Reynolds, Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain, first baseman Eric Hosmer and third baseman Mike Moustakas, Yu Darvish filed for free agency from the Dodgers, Todd Frazier, CC Sabathia and Matt Holiday filed for free agency from the Yankees, and all star first baseman Logam Morrison filed for free agency from the Rays along with Lucas Duda and Alex Cobb.
