NEW YORK (AP) — Outfielder Juan Soto, pitchers Corbin Burnes, Walker Buehler and Max Fried and first baseman Pete Alonso were among 136 players who became free agents Thursday morning.
Third baseman Alex Bregman, outfielder Anthony Santander and shortstop Willy Adames also went free.
There were 64 more players with pending option decisions who could become free agents by Monday, the fifth day after the World Series.
Teams and players can start discussing contract terms at 5:01 p.m. EST on Monday, after the deadline for teams to make $21.05 million qualifying offers to eligible free agents.
Pitcher Justin Verlander became a free agent after he failed to pitch 140 innings this year, the amount that would have triggered his ability to exercise a $35 million conditional player option. If he had exercised the option, the New York Mets would have been obligated to give an additional $17.5 million to Houston as part of last year's trade that sent the three-time Cy Young Award winner back to the Astros.
St. Louis declined options on three right-handed pitchers, Kyle Gibson ($12 million), Lance Lynn ($10 million) and Keynan Middleton ($6 million). Each gets a $1 million buyout.
Milwaukee said a $12 million mutual option had been declined on pitcher Wade Miley, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery last May.
Among those with pending club options are Atlanta designated hitter Marcell Ozuna ($16 million), and Yankees third baseman Anthony Rizzo ($17 million) and reliever Luke Weaver ($2.5 million).
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole can opt out of his contract but the team can void the opt out by adding a $36 million salary for 2029.
Those with player options include pitchers Blake Snell of San Francisco ($30 million, of which $15 million would be deferred), Nick Martinez of Cincinnati ($12 million), Sean Manaea of the New York Mets ($13.5 million), Jordan Montgomery of Arizona ($22.5 million), Nathan Eovaldi of Texas ($20 million) and Michael Wacha of Kansas City ($16 million), along with Chicago Cubs first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger ($27.5 million).
Snell and Flaherty are ineligible for the qualifying offers. A free agent can be made a qualifying offer only if he has been with the same team continuously since opening day and has never received a qualifying offer before.
Qualifying offers began after the 2012 season, and only 13 of 131 offers have been accepted.
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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler celebrates after the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in Game 5 to win the baseball World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
New York Yankees' Juan Soto celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Cleveland Guardians during the 10th inning in Game 5 of the baseball AL Championship Series Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Cleveland. The Yankees won 5-2 to advance to the World Series. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Survivors of a deadly walkway collapse at a state-run ferry dock on a Georgia island said Thursday that the government should help them pay for funerals for the seven people who died as well as medical bills and mental health counseling for those who lived.
Lawmakers on the Georgia Senate's Urban Affairs Committee heard from four people who were at the dock on Sapelo Island on Oct. 19 when a metal gangway snapped in the middle, sending dozens of people plunging into the water.
Among them was Yvonne Brockington of Jacksonville, Florida, who had arranged for more than 50 members of her club for older adults to visit the island during an annual cultural festival organized by its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.
Brockington said she was waiting with others to board an afternoon ferry off the island when she suddenly felt as if she was in a falling elevator. When she stopped suddenly, she felt both of her legs break. While bystanders used a rope to pull Brockington to safety, four members of her club perished.
“The psychological effect, I don't know if it will ever go away, but we definitely need help,” Brockington told lawmakers via video conference from her hospital bed. “It should not have happened. The state of Georgia owes us more than resources. They owe us an apology, and they need to make sure it never happens again.”
Other survivors told the meeting in Atlanta that the traumatic day still haunts them.
Darrel Jenkins, who pulled two people from the water but never learned whether they lived or died, said he continues to have nightmares and asks himself: “What about the people that might not have lived? Could I have done more?”
Regina Brinson said her 79-year-old uncle, Isaiah Thomas, drowned after she had to pry his clutching fingers from her shirt to avoid being dragged underwater herself.
“We need mental health support, financial support, resources to ensure that the survivors and their families have what they need to start recovery,” Brinson said.
The dock on Sapelo Island is operated by the state Department of Natural Resources, which manages the daily ferry service to and from the mainland.
The agency says about 700 people visited Oct. 19 for Cultural Day, a celebration of the tiny Hogg Hummock community founded by emancipated slaves after the Civil War. Hogg Hummock is one of the few Gullah-Geechee communities remaining in the South, where slaves who worked isolated island plantations retained much of their African heritage.
Mawuli Davis, an attorney for some of the people injured in the collapse, told lawmakers his clients have been contacted by state investigators for interviews but not by anyone offering assistance.
Lawmakers said they agree that the state should do more to assist the victims. But how much influence they will have isn't clear: The Senate Urban Affairs Committee is made up of six Democrats, while Republicans control the legislature and the governor's office.
“The state has responsibility,” said Sen. Donzella James, an Atlanta Democrat and the committee's chairperson. “We’re having this hearing to find out what it is exactly they're responsible for.”
The Department of Natural Resources, with assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is investigating what caused the collapse. But victims' lawyers have said they don't trust the state agency to investigate itself, and last week Attorney General Chris Carr said he had called in an engineering firm to conduct an independent, parallel investigation.
No one from the Department of Natural Resources spoke before the committee Thursday.
Last weekend the department offered free counseling services to residents of Sapelo Island as well as on the mainland in McIntosh County. It said in a news release that “ongoing mental health resources will be provided to those in need” and that Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon contacted families of those killed and “shared a phone number with them should they need anything.”
The news release also included a hyperlink to an online form that injured people can fill out to file a liability claim with the state.
A Department of Natural Resources spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email message seeking more information on how it is assisting victims.
A portion of the gangway which collapsed Saturday afternoon remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh county, Ga., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine)
Regina Brinson, center, weeps at a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, while speaking alongside her mother, Katrena Alexander and attorney Ben Crump during a news conference in Jacksonville, Fla. Crump represents families of three of the seven people killed when a ferry dock walkway collapsed on Sapelo Island, Ga., on Saturday, Oct. 19. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
Wilbert Gardner, left, hugs Katrena Alexander while Alexander's daughter, Regina Brinson, right, looks on during a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Jacksonville, Fla, A dock gangway collapse happened as people were leaving a cultural festival on Sapelo Island, Georgia, on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. Alexander's brother, Isaiah Thomas, was among the dead. Gardner had a friend who was hospitalized with injuries. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
FILE - A portion of the collapsed gangway remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh County, Ga., on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Levine, File)
