After three straight seasons in which no player accepted a qualifying offer, and a record twenty offers extended this offseason, perhaps something had to give. For the first time, we saw players land in favor of taking the one-year offer — valued this year at $15.8MM — rather than entering the market with the burden of draft pick compensation attached.
We’ve covered the rules in some detail previously. For those players that accepted a qualifying offer, their once-and-current teams may not trade them without consent until June 15, 2016. (That’s the same rule that applies to any other free agent signing.) And no draft compensation changes hands.
That’s the situation for these three players who accepted qualifying offers:
- Brett Anderson, SP (Dodgers)
- Colby Rasmus, OF (Astros)
- Matt Wieters, C (Orioles)
For the seventeen declining players, their former teams will stand to receive a “sandwich” round draft pick as compensation. New teams that sign those players will have to forfeit their top unprotected draft pick (or picks, if they sign multiple QO-rejecting players). If a player rejects a QO but ultimately re-signs with the same team, no draft pick shuffling occurs.
Here’s that list:
- Wei-Yin Chen, SP (Orioles)
- Chris Davis, 1B (Orioles)
- Ian Desmond, SS (Nationals)
- Dexter Fowler, OF (Cubs)
- Yovani Gallardo, SP (Rangers)
- Alex Gordon, OF (Royals)
- Zack Greinke, SP (Dodgers)
- Jason Heyward, OF (Cardinals)
- Hisashi Iwakuma, SP (Mariners)
- Howie Kendrick, 2B (Dodgers)
- Ian Kennedy, SP (Padres)
- John Lackey, SP (Cardinals)
- Daniel Murphy, 2B/3B (Mets)
- Jeff Samardzija, SP (White Sox)
- Justin Upton, OF (Padres)
- Jordan Zimmermann, SP (Nationals)
That only accounts for 19 of the 20 offers, of course. The other player to receive a QO was righty Marco Estrada, who agreed to a multi-year pact with the Blue Jays before being forced to accept or reject the offer. Toronto will neither gain nor lose draft choices.
When can we get an updated draft order?
mlbtraderumors.com/2015/10/2016-mlb-draft-order.ht…
Once we see which of the sixteen sign with new teams and which re-sign.
Yeah the above link is still the current order. Won’t know final order until the last QO-declining guy signs.
bitterly disappointment with Brett Anderson’s decision
He’s only thrown 303 Innings the past Four seasons. That’s only 18 innings and 20 innings more than Relievers Tyler Clippard and Kelvin Herrera respectively.
I think he made the right choice. Nobody is going to waste a draft pick on a SP who has only thrown 100 innings once the past 4 seasons
Next year may certainly be a different story. If he’s as effective and stays healthy, he will probably get a multiyear contract next season.
Any reason the Blue Jays didn’t let Estrada reject the offer so they can get the sandwich pick and the resign him after?
The blue jays would only get a sandwich pick if another team sign him before a specific date
Sixteen declining players, not seventeen.
Finally, we get to see the market self-correcting a bit. IMHO, while I dislike the system anyway, if you need something, in place, the QO’s should be reserved for the really top-tier free agents. The solid, useful player doesn’t need the drag, and the older player can really be hurt by it, because the expected duration of his contract is more limited. If the teams recognize that making the offer could actually mean paying for the player, then they might focus on value a bit more.
Finally the QO is working as it should.
Shocked that Wieters took the deal. Even after a down year you would have figured that he could fetch more on the open market as a catcher.
Probably figures he can get even more c with a healthy, full season. A guaranteed $16 million isn’t a bad consolation if he has another down year.
Of all on the list, I see Lackey and perhaps Kennedy struggling to get an offer worth ore than their QO, or a multi year deal worth the value of the picks forfeited. They may be well into the spring before their agents strong-arm GMs who think they have a shot at competing to take them on.