Teams face midnight deadline to offer contracts to unsigned players on their 40-man rosters

NEW YORK, N.Y. – As the big-money free agents negotiated, dozens of players with lower profiles waited to find out whether they would be dumped on the market by their clubs Monday night.

Teams had until midnight to offer 2014 contracts to unsigned players on their 40-man rosters. Once a player receives a contract offer, his team no longer can release him before the start of the season without giving him termination pay. That means a club would be responsible for about one-sixth of the salary, which could be a large amount if the player is eligible for arbitration.

Clubs often use the so-called tender deadline as leverage to force agreements with players they won’t go to arbitration with.

In the first announcement of the day, Kansas City declined to offer a contract to infielder Chris Getz, who made $1.05 million this year while hitting .220.