Mariners notebook: Positive news from Sam Tuivailala, important dates

Oct 8, 2018, 4:07 PM

Mariners reliever Sam Tuivailala is recovering from a ruptured Achilles. (AP)

(AP)

Mariners Insider, Seattle Sports

While October is a relatively quiet period in baseball outside of the playoffs, here are a couple of news items, notes and important dates for Mariners fans on a rainy start to the week. We start with the dates.

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• The day after the completion of the World Series, eligible players become free agents at 6 a.m. Pacific time. Those players may sign with any club after 2 p.m. on the fifth day after the World Series ends.

• The fifth day after the World Series is also the final day clubs can tender qualifying offers to eligible players. In order to be eligible for the qualifying offer, a player must have been with the offering team for the entire season and, new with the current collective bargaining agreement, cannot have received a qualifying offer previously in their career. The deadline for players to accept qualifying offers from their former teams is 15 days after the completion of the World Series.

• Teams must finalize rosters for Rule 5 protection by 5 p.m. on Nov. 20. The Rule 5 Draft (explained here) is Dec. 13.

• Nov. 30 is the tender deadline. The following Mariners players are arbitration eligible:

Alex Colomé
Ryan Cook
Roenis Elias
Justin Grimm
Chris Herrmann
James Paxton
Erasmo Ramirez
Nick Vincent
Mike Zunino

• Winter Meetings will be held Dec. 9-13 with the Rule 5 Draft taking place on the final day.

• The 2018 Minor League Rawlings Gold Glove Awards have been announced and Evan White has taken the honors at first base. The winners were selected from players in each of the 10 domestic-based, full season minor leagues. In his first full professional season, White posted a .996 fielding percentage while hitting .300/.371/.453 in 120 games at High-A Modesto and four games at Triple-A Tacoma. Next stop for White: Arizona Fall League.

• Minor leaguers Christian Bergman, Ross Detwiler, Mike Morin and Zack Vincej have elected to become free agents.

• While he is not expected to return until next June after undergoing surgery Aug. 15 to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon, Sam Tuivailala tweeted encouraging news Monday.