Here is the list of the 25 free agents who were offered salary arbitration by Friday, December 1st. Players offered arbitration have until Dec. 7 to accept (x-has agreed to terms of a contract with Houston that has not been finalized).

By making the offer, two things can occur. First, the player can accept or decline. Second, just by offering arbitration the team assures itself of draft pick compensation if the player signs elsewhere. How high a pick the former team receives is determined by the player's Elias rating.

Because of the new collective bargaining agreement, this date had been moved up from December 7 and the deadline for players to accept or decline arbitration has been moved to December 7 from December 19.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
BOSTON (1) -- Keith Foulke, rhp. NEW YORK (1) -- Ron Villone, lhp. OAKLAND (1) -- Barry Zito, lhp. SEATTLE (1) -- Gil Meche, rhp. TEXAS (2) -- x-Carlos Lee, of; Vicente Padilla, rhp. TORONTO (1) -- Ted Lilly, lhp.

NATIONAL LEAGUE
ARIZONA (1) -- Miguel Batista, rhp. CINCINNATI (2) -- Rich Aurilia, 3b; Scott Schoeneweis, lhp. LOS ANGELES (1) -- Julio Lugo, ss. MILWAUKEE (1) -- Tony Graffanino, 2b. NEW YORK (2) -- Roberto Hernandez, rhp; Guillermo Mota, rhp. PHILADELPHIA (1) -- David Dellucci, of. ST. LOUIS (2) -- Mark Mulder, lhp; Jeff Suppan, rhp. SAN DIEGO (6) -- Alan Embree, lhp; Ryan Klesko, 1b; Chan Ho Park, rhp; Dave Roberts, of; Todd Walker, 2b; David Wells, lhp. SAN FRANCISCO (1) -- Jason Schmidt, rhp. WASHINGTON (1) -- Jose Guillen, of.