MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Infielder Kyle Farmer and outfielder Manuel Margot became free agents Friday after the their 2025 options were declined by the Minnesota Twins.
Farmer gets a $250,000 buyout instead of a $6.25 million salary for next year under a mutual option, completing a one-year contract that guaranteed $6.3 million.
Margot's deal included a $12 million mutual option with a $2 million buyout, of which half is deferred, part of a $19 million, two-year deal.
Farmer, 34, hit a career-low .214 with five homers and 25 RBIs in 107 games while playing second, shortstop and third plus one game at first and three mop-up mound appearances. He was sidelined between July 10 and Aug. 9 with a strained right shoulder.
He has a .250 average with 55 homers and 254 RBIs in eight seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2017-18), Cincinnati (2019-22) and Minnesota (2023-24), which acquired him in November 2022 for right-hander Casey Legumina.
Margot, 30, batted .238 with four homers and 31 RBIs. He was traded by Tampa Bay to the Los Angeles Dodgers last December and then to the Twins in February.
He had a $10 million salary, and as part of this year's trade the Dodgers agreed to pay the Twins $6 million. Because the option was declined, Los Angeles will pay Minnesota an additional $2 million on Dec. 1, 2026 — the same day the Dodgers receive $2 million from Tampa Bay because the option was turned down. The Rays already paid LA $2 million in August.
A nine-year big league veteran, Margot has a .254 average with 56 homers, 314 RBIs and 96 stolen bases for San Diego (2016-19), the Rays (2020-23) and the Twins.
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FILE - Minnesota Twins' Manuel Margot runs out a two-run double during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Nick Cammett, File)
FILE - Minnesota Twins' Kyle Farmer sprints to third during a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — Election officials in Georgia’s third-largest county said they’re late in mailing more than 3,000 absentee ballots to voters just a few days before the election.
Election officials in Cobb County north of Atlanta were using U.S. Postal Service express mail and UPS overnight delivery in an effort to deliver the ballots on time. Mail-in ballots must be returned by Election Day on Tuesday in order to be counted.
“We want to maintain voter trust by being transparent about the situation,” county Board of Elections Chairwoman Tori Silas said in a statement Thursday. “We are taking every possible step to get these ballots to the voters who requested them."
Silas blamed the delay on faulty equipment and a late surge in absentee ballot requests during the week before the Oct. 25 deadline.
The late absentee ballots were being mailed with prepaid express return envelopes, which election officials said would ensure they could be returned on time
Georgia voters have shattered early turnout records since advance voting began Oct. 15. As of Friday afternoon, more than 3.8 million ballots, reflecting more than half the state's active voters, had been cast, according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office. The tally includes more than 238,000 absentees.
In Cobb County, election officials said voters whose awaiting absentee ballots were late could still vote in-person on the final day of early voting Friday or on Tuesday. The county's election headquarters planned to stay open to accept hand-delivered absentees through the weekend and on Monday.
However, the Board of Elections said that more than 1,000 of the absentee ballots being mailed late were being sent to people outside of Georgia.
A county spokesperson, Ross Cavitt, declined to comment Friday on what number, if any, of the late ballots still needed to be mailed, citing pending litigation.
Two civil rights groups, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a lawsuit Friday asking a Cobb County judge to extend the deadline for counting absentees postmarked by Election Day to Nov 8, three days later.
The complaint was filed on behalf of three Cobb County voters who said they still had not received absentee ballots by mail as of Friday. The lawsuit said that although county election officials “have taken some steps to help alleviate the problem, those actions are not nearly enough to safeguard their right to vote.”
A woman holds up her sticker that signifies that she has officially voted in the state of Georgia, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jason Allen)
