Will New York Yankees reliever David Robertson to be the first to take qualifying offer?

The New York Yankees are expected to offer reliever David Robertson a qualifying offer this winter and one New York sportswriter thinks Robertson will be the first MLB player to accept the offer.

It isn’t common for MLB teams to offer the $15.3-million dollar qualifying offer to relievers, no matter how reliable they may be. Of course, the New York Yankees aren’t a common team and they’re considering extending the qualifying offer to closer David Robertson. That the Yankees would extend Robertson the offer isn’t a shock, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post thinks Robertson will accept the one-year offer, which hasn’t happened yet in the 22 times the offer has been used in MLB.

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The qualifying offer can only be extended to potential free agents who have spent the entire year with the same team and is the average of the 125 highest annual salaries in MLB. It’s a one-year, $15.3-million dollar offer. In theory, a team and a player could agree to the qualifying offer and then continue to work out a long-term extension to replace it.

Robertson is a good closer and the Yankees both need him and can afford him; for most teams, considering the qualifying offer to a good-but-not-elite reliever is madness, but the Yankees are anything but most teams. While New York is no longer trying to spend other teams into the ground, the Yankees still have money and want to keep Robertson in the back of their pen. He will pitch most of the 2015 season at age 30, and has pitched at least 60 innings for the Yankees every year since 2010.

With Mariano Rivera retired, Robertson inherited the full-time closer role in 2014, and he was great for the Yanks: 39 saves, 3.08 ERA, 96 strikeouts on the year and only five blown saves. Roberson would probably prefer a multi-year deal to the qualifying offer, but he’s very unlikely to get $15.3-million annually on the open market, which makes Sherman think Robertson could simply grab the qualifying offer and potentially continue to negotiate an extension with the Yankees. If Robertson is extended the qualifying offer and he declines it, any team signing him would have to surrender a draft pick as compensation (unless he were to re-sign with the Yankees after declining the offer, which seems illogical, but could theoretically happen).

The New York Yankees are expected to offer reliever David Robertson a qualifying offer this winter and one New York sportswriter thinks Robertson will be the first MLB player to accept the offer.

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