24 Free Agents offered arbitration deals

MLB Trade Rumors has the list of free agents that were offered arbitration deals before midnight last night:

Type A (15 players)
A.J. Burnett
Orlando Cabrera
Juan Cruz
Brian Fuentes
Orlando Hudson
Raul Ibanez
Derek Lowe
Darren Oliver
Oliver Perez
Manny Ramirez
Francisco Rodriguez
C.C. Sabathia
Ben Sheets
Mark Teixeira
Jason Varitek

Type B (9 players)
Casey Blake
Milton Bradley
Paul Byrd
Jon Garland
Mark Grudzielanek
Brandon Lyon
Dennys Reyes
Brian Shouse
David Weathers

No real surprises here, but it should be noted that while Jason Varitek was expected to get an offer... Paul Byrd was not. It's very likely that Tek could sign with another club, so it makes sense for the Red Sox cover their butts, but with a number of free agnet pitchers on their radar and kids like Masterson, Buchholz and Bowden likely to spend time as major league starters in 2009, it's tough to see why the Red Sox offered Byrd a deal.

They may simply be taking the opportunity to grab a draft pick if Byrd does sign elsewhere... or they may be thinking that Paul Byrd could be helpful to the club should Tim Wakefield go down or the kids don't develop as hoped.

He's certainly a cheaper option than Derek Lowe $16 million asking price... and he's been a 10+ game winner in 5 of the last 6 seasons.

Also, the Red Sox didn't make arbitration offers to Bartolo Colon, Curt Schilling and Mike Timlin, catcher David Ross, infielders Sean Casey and Alex Cora, and outfielder Mark Kotsay.

Here are a few other guys that surprisingly we not offered arbitration deals:

Bobby Abreu
Joe Beimel
Pat Burrell
Adam Dunn
Braden Looper
Jamie Moyer
Randy Wolf
Kerry Wood