As we expected, the Fish did not offer contracts to Ronny Paulino or Jose Veras before the 11:59 PM deadline Thursday night. 

It was pretty clear Paulino was out of the picture when the Marlins signed catcher Jon Buck to a 3-year deal last month, and Veras got bumped out of a bullpen that just added four relievers via three trades. Paulino and Veras are now free agents, and the Fish have freed up a space on the 40-man for this month's rule-5 draft.

Much to the delight of FishStripes, The Marlins also avoided arbitration with their long-reliever extraordinaire, The Hopper, coming to terms a few hours before the deadline on a one year deal worth somewhere in the vicinity of $1 million. That makes Anibal Sanchez, Ricky Nolasco, Leo Nunez, K-lay Hensley, and Edward Mujica the Marlins' remaining arbitration-eligible players.