Examining the Pirates’ potential non-tender candidates

John Hefti-USA TODAY SportsThe Pittsburgh Pirates have a plethora of players that will be eligible for arbitration this winter.

As fans of the Pirates, we are all too familiar with the service time clock in baseball. In a player’s first three seasons of service time, they make very little money. In the three years after that, a player is eligible for arbitration and their salary increases. After six years of service time, a player then becomes eligible for free agency. As we know, the Pirates don’t really do the whole free agency thing.

Non-tendering a player heading into an arbitration year is a common thing. Sometimes the player just isn’t worth it. Sometimes the team doesn’t want to pay…