MLB free agency: Colby Rasmus, Matt Wieters and Brett Anderson accept qualifying offers
Colby Rasmus, Matt Wieters and Brett Anderson have accepted their qualifying offers
The deadline for potential MLB free agents to accept or decline qualifying offers from their previous team has come and gone, and for the first time, it has proven to not be one without any notable moments. For the first time, the one-year, qualifying offer has been accepted and done so by a trio of players: Colby Rasmus of the Houston Astros, Matt Wieters of the Baltimore Orioles and Brett Anderson of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Each will earn a salary of $15.8 million next season on a guaranteed, one-year deal before reaching free agency again next year.
Overall, 20 players received qualifying offers from their teams this year, with 16 turning down the offer. To the teams who saw their now former players turn down the offer extended to them, they will be in line to receive either first round or highest available pick draft pick compensation from the team whom signs their lost asset.
The value of the qualifying offer is determined by an average of the top 125 player contracts for the prior season.
Yet, for teams looking to protect their interest as their potentially former employees voyage into MLB free agency, it can be a calculated risk. At times this can cause a prolonged stay on the free agent market for some players, which can even extend past the beginning of the next season, as it did for Kendrys Morales in 2013.
In other cases, the team must weigh out the risk of the player actually accepting the offer and potentially getting a much higher pay out than they would have otherwise, albeit for a shorter time span and smaller overall value than a multi-year deal would bring.
Thus far, the system has worked exclusively in the favor of the teams whom have extended the offers getting a pick back in return for their loss. However it became officially on Friday that the tables had turned for the first time, when Rasmus became the first player in history to actually accept the qualifying offer. It will make him the highest paid player on the Astros’ roster and provides a $7.8 million raise from last year. In 2015, Rasmus hit .238 with 25 home runs, while shifting between duty in left and center field.
Meanwhile, by accepting the Orioles’ offer Wieters will become one of the top three highest paid catchers in the game next season. Among catchers, only Buster Posey and Brian McCann will take home more than Wieters will in 2016, as he was slated to hit free agency on the heels of a season where he hit .267, along with eight home runs and 25 RBI over 75 games. The three-time All-Star returned to Baltimore in June from Tommy John surgery which cut his 2014 season short.
The final player who opted to take his club’s offer was Anderson, who won 10 games across a career-high 31 starts in 2015, his first season in Los Angeles. The 27-year-old left-hander accepted the offer as yet another chance to prove himself to be past the injury plagued stretch that defined his career over the handful of past seasons. He’ll gain a $5 million dollar base salary increase from 2014 as well, with the opportunity to re-enter free agency next season at age 28.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marco Estrada was the only player to agree to a multi-year deal to surpass the qualifying offer, inking a two-year, $26 million pact to stay with the Jays.
The players who declined the offer and will move on to free agency are: Wei-Yin Chen and Chris Davis (Orioles), Ian Kennedy and Justin Upton (Padres), Jason Heyward and John Lackey (Cardinals), Ian Desmond and Jordan Zimmermann (Nationals), Dexter Fowler (Cubs), Yovani Gallardo (Rangers), Alex Gordon (Royals), Zack Greinke (Dodgers), Hisashi Iwakuma (Mariners), Howie Kendrick (Dodgers), Daniel Murphy (Mets) and Jeff Samardzija (White Sox).