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The free-agent pool is about to grow.

On Friday, the deadline to tender arbitration-eligible players contracts for 2018 arrives, and the Toronto Blue Jays may have a couple interesting decisions on their hands.

Of the 11 Blue Jays eligible for salary arbitration this winter, seven of them are locks. Josh Donaldson, Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez, Roberto Osuna, Devon Travis, Kevin Pillar and Dominic Leone will all be tendered by the 8 p.m. ET deadline.

The remaining four names aren’t certainties, and their arbitration dollar values may be starting to eclipse what they bring to the field, making a non-tender situation a possibility if the club believes the money or the roster spot could be put to better use.

RHP Tom Koehler
2017 salary: $5,750,000
MLB Trade Rumors 2018 projection: $6 million
Thanks to starting 133 games over the course of his tenure with the Miami Marlins, Koehler’s first two arbitration years bumped his salary to the $5.75 million that they decided to dump on the Blue Jays in August.
Once in Toronto, Koehler was handed one spot start and then used out of the bullpen for the first time in his career for 14 appearances.
Interestingly, the 31-year-old right-hander, who showed up in the clubhouse every day wearing a Toronto Argonauts hat, looked pretty good out of the pen, striking out 11 in 12 innings and pitching to an ERA of 3.00 in the small sample size.
The Blue Jays might love for him to reprise that role in spring training and battle for a bullpen job, but at a different salary number once he’s non-tendered.
It would be a surprise if Koehler is tendered at his current projection.

OF Ezequiel Carrera
2017 salary: $1,162,500
MLB Trade Rumors 2018 projection: $1.9 million
Trying to understand why the Blue Jays offence went south in 2017?
You only have to look at the Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) team leaders, which looks at offensive contributions only and evens out ballpark effects.
Donaldson was first, as expected, with a 149 wRC+, well above the 100 threshold of league average. Justin Smoak’s sensational breakout campaign had him checking in next at 132 wRC+.
Third was Carrera with a BABIP-fuelled 107 wRC+.
That paints a picture of a flawed and not very deep lineup, one that often had Carrera near the top of it against right-handers due to a lack of options.
Carrera’s .356 on-base percentage was second only to Donaldson.
In the outfield, however, Carrera was a mess, posting a minus-14 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and minus-6.9 Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), giving back many of the good moments he had at the plate.
Like all of the names on this list with the exception of Koehler, the salary is fairly insignificant, but the roster spot may be put to better use as GM Ross Atkins tries to retool the offence.

SS/2B Ryan Goins
2017 salary: $548,200
MLB Trade Rumors 2018 projection: $1.8 million
The soon-to-be 30-year-old got all the playing time he could handle in 2017 thanks to Troy Tulowitzki and Devon Travis being, well, themselves.
Goins responded with career highs in games played (143), plate appearances (459), home runs (nine), RBI (62), and was generally an everyday player for most of the season thanks to injuries to the two aforementioned starters.
But even through all that and aided by unsustainable numbers with runners in scoring position, Goins slashed just .237/.286/.356 and posted a well-below league average 69 wRC+, which was actually better than his career mark of 63.
Even more concerning was his defensive slippage, especially at the six-spot where he posted a mark of minus-5 DRS and a UZR of minus-4.7 in 670 innings.
Atkins spoke glowingly of Goins’ work during the season, but it’s also clear they’re searching for middle infield depth upgrades in free agency and on the trade market.

LHP Aaron Loup
2017 salary: $1,125,000
MLB Trade Rumors 2018 projection: $1.8 million
By most accounts, Loup enjoyed a pretty good 2017 season.
Appearing in a career-high 70 games, Loup pitched to a decent 3.75 ERA and 3.66 FIP.
His strikeouts reached 9.9 K/9 but his walks also crested to 4.5 BB/9 and he still plunked six batters to reach 28 for his career.
Once you take into account the fact he’s currently the only lefty with any sort of MLB experience on the roster, as well as his reasonable $1.8-million salary projection, there’s really no reason to think Loup won’t be around past Friday’s deadline.