Cubs 40-man Roster

The best thing about non-tendering a player on December 2nd is that it's the one day each year when a club can remove a player from its MLB 40-man roster without having to risk losing the player off waivers.

3/18 UPDATE:

The Kansas City Royals have signed recently-released RHRP Justin Grimm to a major league contract ($1.25M base salary with another $300K in potential performance bonuses).

But because Grimm was signed to a non-guaranteed contract and was released by the Cubs prior to MLB Opening Day, there is no salary offset for the Cubs. The $530K termination pay Grimm got from the Cubs is - NOT - offset by the $1.25M Grimm gets from the Royals. They are considered two unrelated deals, so Grimm ultimately could make upwards of $2M+ in 2018 (close to the $2.2M he was scheduled to make if he had not been released) if he reaches all of the performance bonuses (the $530K termination pay he got from the Cubs + the $1.25M base salary he gets from the Royals + the $300K in potential performance bonuses).

If Grimm had been released by the Cubs after MLB Opening Day, he would have received the entire $2.2M salary he got from the arbitration panel as termination pay, and then the Royals could have signed him for just the MLB minimum salary ($555K) and the Cubs would have been on the hook for the remaining $1.645M.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

3/15 UPDATE:

The Cubs have released veteran RHRP Justin Grimm.

Because he was released 15 or fewer days prior to MLB Opening Day, Grimm will get 45 days salary as termination pay (which is about $530K of the $2.2M 2018 salary that he was awarded by an arbitration panel last month). Note that the Cubs would have saved themselves about $180K if they had released Grimm prior to yesterday (Wednesday), because players with non-guaranteed contracts receive only 30 days salary as termination pay if released more than 15 days prior to MLB Opening Day.

So the Cubs MLB Reserve List now stands at 39 (one slot is open), and 39 players are assigned to the Cubs Spring Training Active List (including ten NRI).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


3/11 ORIGINAL POST:

A player on an MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) signed to a non-guaranteed contract who is released more than 15 days prior to Opening Day receives 30 days salary as termination pay (paid at the "minor league rate" if the player is signed to a "split contract"), and a player on an MLB Reserve List signed to a non-guaranteed contract who is released 15 or fewer days prior to Opening Day receives 45 days salary as termination pay (all players paid at the "Major League rate"). A player on an MLB Reserve List signed to a non-guaranteed contract who is released during the MLB regular season receives 100% of his salary as termination pay (paid at the "minor league rate" for players on Optional Assignment to the minors). An unsigned player on an MLB Reserve List released during the off-season receives no termination pay.

So this coming Tuesday (3/13) is the last day a club can release a player on its MLB 40-man roster who is signed to a non-guaranteed contract and pay the player only 30 days salary (which is about 1/6 of the player's salary) as termination pay - AND - at the "minor league rate" if the player is signed to a split contract (meaning the player's salary varies depending on whether the player is on the club's MLB 25-man roster or is on Optional Assignment to the minors). 

NOTE: This is an abridged version of a story I posted here about nine years ago, but in the archives it is attributed to Christian Ruzich, but actually I wrote it...

When looking ahead at the Cubs likely post-2014 MLB Reserve List (40-man roster), whether a player presently on the 40-man roster is eligible to be an MLB Article XX-B free-agent or will be eligible for Salary Arbitration, or whether a player presently on a Cubs minor league roster is eligible to be a minor league free-agent post-2014 or is eligible for selection in the December 2014 Rule 5 Draft, will be determining factors. 

With the World Series having concluded last night, the MLB 2013-14 "off-season" has officially begun.

So there are a number of things that now come into play, including:

A look ahead at the Cubs 40-man roster over the next six months:

After what felt like months of chatting about compensation, GM's, presidents and managers, the new powers-that-be finally get around to some player juggling. The deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft is soon approaching and the Cubs had some decisions to make. The lucky 4 deemed worth protecting were Josh Vitters, Matt Szczur, Jeff Beliveau and Junior Lake.

My latest little pet project at Wiklifield after completeing the team-by-team transactions is to put together player pages on the entire Cubs organizations from the majors to the minors. I got through the basic info on the 40-man roster this weekend and have discovered with some very simple coding, that I can start putting together some interesting lists. One such list is how the Cubs' 40-man roster was put together, so I thought I'd share.

So here's the breakdown from the Cubs' 40-man roster found at Wiklifield (not to be confused with the 40-man roster maintained by Arizona Phil):