At 8 pm EST, MLB’s non-tender deadline passed. The deadline represents the last chance all 30 teams have to offer contracts to players with fewer than six years of service time. The two sides don’t have to reach an actual agreement on a contract; the deadline simply forces teams to commit to signing their pre-arb players and offering contracts to their arb-eligible plyers, or to releasing those players.
The Yankees didn’t rock the boat by non-tendering Gary Sánchez. There had been some buzz that the team would consider cutting ties with Sánchez after the 28-year-old’s nightmare 2020 campaign, but ultimately made the reasonable decision to give the inconsistent but immensely talented backstop another shot.