The MLB non-tender deadline was Friday evening.
That meant every team, including the New York Yankees, had to decide what to do with players who were up for salary arbitration.
In the end, the Yanks chose not to offer contracts to four of those players, along with one pre-arbitration player. All five of those guys will go directly into free agency.
The quintet was:
- Mark Leiter Jr.
- Scott Effross
- Jake Cousins
- Ian Hamilton
- Michael Arias
All five were pitchers.
Leiter was projected to make $3 million in salary arbitration, but his 4.89 ERA in 70 innings as a Yankees reliever apparently didn't cut it.
Hamilton was once a strong prospect but lost that shine. He had a 4.28 ERA in 2025.
Effross pitched in 11 MLB games in 2025 due to injuries.
Cousins is coming back from Tommy John surgery.
Arias hasn't made his MLB debut.
The Yankees did keep others around, including Oswaldo Cabrera and Clarke Schmidt.
There are now a lot bigger fish to take care of in the offseason for the Yankees. They just had to get through this process first to start to build toward the moves that will grab more headlines.
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