You hear it right about now every year, “Team X will non-tender Player Y”.  What does “non-tender” mean?  It’s a fancy word for not offering a player a contract and thus making him a free agent.

Each team has a 40 man roster that consists of active players in the Major Leagues, players on the disabled list, and player in the Minor Leagues.  The 40 man roster is like a protective cover over the team’s best 40 players.  Every December 12, each team has to decide which of their 40 players on their roster they want to keep for next year.  For most of the 40 players, the decision is simple.  You already have a contract and are living the good life, or the team values you enough that they will pay you a fair market value for a contract for the upcoming season.  For those players on the 40 man roster that have performed poorly or may not be worth the investment for the next season, a team will non-tender them or not give them a contract.  The player then becomes a free agent and is removed from the team’s roster.

This is a high level explanation of what “non-tender”means and the circumstances that must occur to get to that stage.  There are other factors that you should consider such as a player’s Major League Service time, options years to move between the Major League and Minor League club, and waivers.  I’ll save those for another conversation, but if you want to read over a good article, check this one out.