Cubs non-tender Codi Heuer, Ethan Roberts and Brandon Hughes; Patrick Wisdom signed

Today was the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players and here’s what the Cubs did:

Codi Heuer, Ethan Roberts and Brandon Hughes all missed time over the last couple of years with various injuries. All have talent and all are still relatively young — Heuer is 27, Roberts 26 and Hughes turns 28 in a couple of weeks — so it would not surprise me to see all three re-signed by the Cubs on minor-league deals with non-roster invites to Spring Training.

The Cubs’ other six arbitration-eligible players — Adbert Alzolay, Mark Leiter Jr., Nick Madrigal, Julian Merryweather, Justin Steele and Mike Tauchman — have all been tendered contracts for the 2024 season.

There’s been no report yet on what Patrick Wisdom’s contract calls for, but MLB Trade Rumors projected him to get $2.6 million, so I’d guess it’s probably close to that. As always, we await developments.

There have been a number of interesting non-tenders at the deadline; perhaps the most interesting is Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers, who won’t pitch in 2024 due to injury. A two-year deal, perhaps with an option beyond that, might not be a bad idea with Woodruff, who is certainly familiar to new Cubs manager Craig Counsell.

Other non-tenders the Cubs might be interested in include Adam Cimber of the Blue Jays, Jacob Stallings of the Marlins and Andrew Knizner of the Cardinals, since the Cubs will need to stash a backup catcher at Triple-A Iowa in case of injury to Yan Gomes or Miguel Amaya.

We’ll have lots of time to discuss these over the next few days. With these moves, the Cubs’ 40-man roster stands at 37.