The Cardinals have extended a qualifying offer to right fielder Carlos Beltran, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). Should Beltran reject the qualifying offer, which is valued at one year and $14.1MM, the Cardinals will be eligible to receive a compensatory draft pick should he sign elsewhere.
Beltran saw a decline in his plate discipline, defense and offense from the right side of the dish in 2013, but he still slashed a robust .296/.339/.491 with 24 home runs in an even 600 plate appearances. In my free agent profile for Beltran last month, I predicted that he could sign a two-year, $30MM contract to cover his age 37-38 seasons. Beltran and the Yankees are rumored to have mutual interest.
You can keep track of Beltran and all of baseball's free agents this offseason by using MLBTR's Free Agent Tracker.
