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Midnight Eastern time tonight was the deadline for teams to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players for next season or allow players to leave as free agents and the Cubs, like every other team in the league, were busy tonight. To no one's surprise, six players were tendered contracts: Jake Arrieta, Justin Grimm, Hector Rondon, Pedro Strop, Travis Wood and Chris Coghlan. Two players, Ryan Cook and Jack Leathersich, were non-tendered and allowed to leave as free agents.
In addition, two player, relievers Rex Brothers and Clayton Richard, agreed to terms with the Cubs for next season. Richard signed next year for $2 million and Rex Brothers agreed to a $1.42 million deal.
The players tendered contracts will now be eligible for arbitration although if the pattern holds from past seasons, the Cubs will look to come to terms with all of them before going to an arbitration hearing.
With these moves, the Cubs 40-man roster now stands at 36.