As expected, Nathan Eovaldi and David Robertson will hit the free agent market
Nathan Eovaldi has declined his $20 million player option for the 2025 season, Chris Young announced today (per the beats). Thus, Eovaldi is officially a free agent. In addition, over the weekend, David Robertson declined his portion of the mutual option in his deal for the 2025 season, and so he is also a free agent.
Neither of these moves are surprises. Eovaldi had a $20 million player option vest due to his throwing 300 innings over the past two seasons, but he can do better than a one year/$20 million deal in the open market. Per the beats, Chris Young says the Rangers have interest in bringing him back, but it will presumably be on something more than a 1 year, $20 million contract. Jim Bowden predicted a few days ago Eovaldi would get 2 years, $42 million, while Tim Britton has him projected at 2 years, $45 million.
As a reminder, Eovaldi cannot be tendered the qualifying offer, as he has already been QO’d once before.
As for Robertson, mutual options pretty much never come to fruition, as either the team or the player almost always doesn’t want to do it. So Robertson is also a free agent now.