As it turns out, the two small trades (Chris Stewart and Jaff Decker) the Pirates made over the last couple of weeks coupled with the resulting roster moves (Garrett Jones, Kyle McPherson, and Mike McKenry all DFA) comprised most of the Pirates' news as it relates to the non-tender deadline that just passed about a half-hour ago; the Pirates tendered contracts to the other seven arbitration-eligible players (Pedro Alvarez, Vin Mazzaro, Mark Melancon, Charlie Morton, Gaby Sanchez, Travis Snider, and Neil Walker) before the deadline passed. Jones, McPherson, and McKenry were all non-tendered (which is a procedural thing since they've all been removed from the roster after their respective DFAs).
Most of this not really news. In fact, it seemed like maybe five of the seven were slam dunks to get contracts, with Vin Mazzaro and Travis Snider on the fringe. Mazzaro, of course, had a really solid year as a swing-man/long reliever for the Pirates in 2013 despite iffy peripherals. He'll likely have to pitch his way back onto the club over whoever gets invited to spring training, but since his salary is unlikely to be too high in his first year of arbitration, you can understand why the Pirates would make him an offer here. Neal Huntington will always choose more arms over less arms, I think. Snider's a bit more of a surprise, given his extreme struggles with the bat last year. Presumably, he'll have a chance in spring training to earn a big league roster spot, but I don't know that this really means much more than that.
Of course, you can also head over to MLB Trade Rumors and see who else was non-tendered tonight. Tommy Hanson and Daniel Hudson were both DFA'd with injury concerns, which would've seemed unthinkable maybe 18 months ago. The Red Sox non-tendered Andrew Bailey, who seems like the sort of pitcher the PIrates could be interested in depending on the severity of his shoulder injury (he's expected to miss at least part of 2014, but it's not quite apparent out how much). If you've watched how Neal Huntington operates these last few off-seasons, you could pretty much place the call to John Axford for him over the next week or so. Same goes for Ryan Webb, who had a good season with the Marlins last year and has a really good groundball rate as a reliever.
