Pirates To Extend Qualifying Offer To Russell Martin

The Pittsburgh Pirates are likely to extend a one-year qualifying offer to catcher Russell Martin.

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For much of the season the Pittsburgh Pirates and catcher Russell Martin went back-and-forth on contractual talks though the two sides could never find a happy medium.

Now with Martin eligible for free agency the Pirates have made one last ditch effort to keep their backstop in the Steel City.

According to Jon Heyman, the Pittsburgh Pirates are planning to extend a qualifying offer to Russell Martin which would pay him $15.3 million dollars for the upcoming season.

"The Pirates plan to extend the $15.3 million qualifying offer to star free-agent catcher Russell Martin, league sources said.The Pirates made a multiyear offer to Martin sometime during the season, as was reported here, and are apparently serious in their efforts to try to retain Martin. The qualifying offer itself represents quite a raise for Martin, although a huge season has set him up to prosper in free agency."

You may recall this was a tactic the Pittsburgh Pirates attempted last season with pitcher A.J. Burnett though he decided to sign a longer deal with the Philadelphia Phillies. Understandably that’s a concern of the Pirates as a one-year payday of $15.3 million dollars is nice, but if you can get a multi-year deal, such an offer looks somewhat uninteresting. Making the decision even more difficult will be the fact that Russell Martin is likely signing his last Major League contract given his age so he’s going to want as much money in a multi-year deal as possible.

Given all that it seems very unlikely that Russell Martin would accept the Pittsburgh Pirates’ one-year qualifying offer despite the lucrative money on the table. Still, it’s an obvious move if you’re the Pirates as it’s possible Russell Martin could out-price himself and potentially return to Pittsburgh next season.

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