The Marlins have had little luck signing other teams' players this winter, making just two minor trades and signing only a handful of minor-league free agents. So Tuesday, general manager Admin Beinfest turned his attention to his own players, offering contracts to all 36 on his major-league roster.

 

For most of the Marlins, Tuesday's midnight deadline for tendering contracts to unsigned players was little more than a formality. Players with less than three years of big-league experience basically can be signed for whatever the club wants to pay them as long as it's at or above the major-league minimum of $380,000.

 

But it was an important date for the team's four arbitration-eligible players -- catcher Miguel Olivo, pitchers Dontrelle Willis and Kevin Gregg and infielder Miguel Cabrera. If the Marlins had failed to offer any of the four contracts, they would have become free agents.

 

And with contract offers now on the table, the team and the agents for each player have less than a month to work out a deal before the date to file for binding arbitration, where the club and the player submit salary figures to an arbitrator, who picks between the two offers.

 

''The real important day is the day we have to exchange salary figures,'' said Willis' agent Matt Sosnick, who has already begun discussions with the Marlins. ``We'll try to work something out. Based on early conversations I think we'll get something [done].''

 

Willis, who made $4.35 million in his first year of arbitration last summer, is expected to seek something similar to the $6 million Roy Halladay got from Toronto in his second arbitration-eligible season in 2004.

 

Cabrera, meanwhile, could set a record for a first-year arbitration-eligible player by getting as much as $7 million.

 

LINK

not really much meat to it if they are looking long term, sounds more just like trying to do 1 year stuff :thumbdown

not really much meat to it if they are looking long term, sounds more just like trying to do 1 year stuff :thumbdown

 

I have no problem with the 1 years stuff... Its the way to go...

It's a weird headline for the story.

 

When I saw it I thought it was going to a roundup of potential trades the Fish had been involved in, or someone was interested buying the team or it had to do with a new stadium.

 

It's almost as if lately whoever is writing headlines in the sports department really has no grasp of the game. The word missing is "tender" which is the operative word onwhich the story is rooted.

 

It should have been something like...

 

Marlins tender offers to 36

 

Willis, Cabrera, Olivo, Gregg offered arbitration

It's a weird headline for the story.

 

When I saw it I thought it was going to a roundup of potential trades the Fish had been involved in, or someone was interested buying the team or it had to do with a new stadium.

 

It's almost as if lately whoever is writing headlines in the sports department really has no grasp of the game. The word missing is "tender" which is the operative word onwhich the story is rooted.

 

The Marlin should have been something like...

 

Marlins tender offers to 36

 

Willis, Cabrera, Olivo, Gregg offered arbitration

 

You have a point :thumbup

It's a weird headline for the story.

 

When I saw it I thought it was going to a roundup of potential trades the Fish had been involved in, or someone was interested buying the team or it had to do with a new stadium.

 

It's almost as if lately whoever is writing headlines in the sports department really has no grasp of the game. The word missing is "tender" which is the operative word onwhich the story is rooted.

 

It should have been something like...

 

Marlins tender offers to 36

 

Willis, Cabrera, Olivo, Gregg offered arbitration

 

I agree. I thought it was going to talk about trade offers the team made that got turned down.

To many readers, "Marlins tender offers to 36" would mean they offered contracts to free agents. Because a good amount of readers don't think the Marlins have any financial commitment to more than two (Miggy and Dontrelle) or two dozen players.