The Reds have “officially” decided against issuing a qualifying offer to shortstop Zack Cozart, tweets Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer. FanRag’s Jon Heyman and others have recently painted the chances of such an offer for Cozart as unlikely. The lack of a QO should boost Cozart’s free-agent stock as he heads into the open market on the heels of a career year.
Cozart, 32, batted .297/.385/.548 with a career-high 24 home runs, 24 doubles and seven triples (also a career-high) in 2017. Though hamstring and quadriceps injuries limited him to 122 games, Cozart’s explosive bat and typically strong glovework at shortstop led to a five-WAR season in the eyes of both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference.
The rebuilding Reds, however, ultimately opted not to extend a $17.4MM one-year offer to Cozart due to a lack of a clear market for shortstops in free agency. Cincinnati apparently did not wish to risk Cozart accepting that offer and potentially bringing the team’s payroll north of $100MM before the offseason even began. Of course, the decision not to extent the QO also means that they’ll see one of the team’s best players walk without any form of compensation for his services.
Of course, the decision not to extent the QO also means that they’ll see one of the team’s best players walk without any form of compensation for his services.
Nothing?? The reds couldn’t get ANYTHING for him if they knew he wasnt returning next year?
Wow if I was Reds fan I’d be furious about this. That’s horrible.
I’m a Reds fan, they made an extremely wise decision not making him an offer today. They made an extremely unwise decision hanging onto him the past 18 months. He should have been on the Mariners squad at the ASB in 2016.
Which begs the question: Why wasn’t that trade made?
There have been conflicting reports on it. One rumor claimed the Reds were too focused on the Jay Bruce trade, but that has been disputed by the Reds.
Wonder if he could be an option for the Phillies if they move J.P. to 3rd?
Im willing to give Maik one last shot. Also- if that doesnt work, we have Kingery whos been getting reps at the hot corner.
Well hope cozart gets the contract he wants.
COOL
2 years 10 mil contract from the padres ?
Probably closer to 3yr/$30-40mil. If he was willing to sign for $5mil AAV, some contender would scoop him up as a utility player, but the Padres are the only team with a big enough need to actually competitively bid on his services. Show him some love with a reasonable contract offer right in the beginning, and not only will no one out bid them, he won’t shop around either; try and cheapen out, and they might engender some ill will that could push him to another team.
Hey, remember me? You said the Padres should trade Brad Hand for Profar straight up. The Rangers basically have to trade Profar this offseason and won’t get anything close to as good as Hand. What do you have to say for yourself?
Wow.
How long have you been waiting for this guy to show up?
That’s a sign that you spend too much time on this site buddy.
It wasn’t even that long ago
Ryan probably has screens shots of this
Don’t test him lol
Nope. Just a good memory.
Why would it be three? Padres only need 2.
And 10-13 a year is too much
Cuz that is what it would take to sign him.
Next!
Well see. Not many other teams need shortstops so it’s entirely possible no one shows up to price him out of our range.
Giants, 4/70
Giants already have a shortstop and Cozart isn’t worth that much money. That’s basically the QO’s AAV over 4 years.
Lol so you’ll drop Crawford?
I’d love to take that player for 500k a year
He made 5.3M$ in his final year of arb eligibility this season, that figure should at least double with the ability to sell his services league wide, coming off a career year. The debate will be how many years can he get, especially given his injury history.
No way he signs for 5 million per year.
No way he’s available for that cheap but I can see him getting a lower AAV than he’s probably worth with an opt out after 1 year cuz not many teams really need a shortstop at this point and those who do are rebuilding.
The Reds still can sign Cozart and if they do it likely will be a multi-year deal at less than $17.4 million annually. It’s doubtful any team will pay Cozart $17.4 million per year. I can see someone giving him 3-36.
Why would they? They got players waiting for their shot.
They been getting rid of veterans at alarming rate to bring in the young bucks
Reds are rebuilding. They have no business offering a multi-year contract to a SS in his 30s. Move on, Cincy, and don’t look back.
Likely?, it certainly won’t be a single year at more than the QO.
The QO is not that valable now anyway, so why put that money out.
I just wish they would trade Votto to the Mets 🙂
What is with the Reds? That FO can’t seen to get anything right. They squandered the Chapman trade and now they’re getting nothing for Cozart. I get that there might not have been any sexy offers for him at the deadline, but it’s better than nothing when you’re rebuilding.
Also waited too long to trade Cueto and Leake. Could have gotten more for them if they had been traded the prior offseason because the acquiring team would have gotten a full year of them as opposed to just two months and would have had the right to QO them.
The reds made good trades on the cueto and leake deals
Could have gotten better deals if they traded them the prior offseason when the acquiring team would have gotten a full season of them and would have retained the right to QO them.
Really? NOT!
Wrong freaking comment
A lot f time value goes up despite the half season of lost control due to more pressing need, teams are more willing to pay a premium when they are in a playoff race. See the return for Chapman pre-season to the return for Chapman mid-season. Not like he ceased being a gun-toting maniac in the interim, demand just went up enough that teams had to stop caring.
Not a good argument. At the time of his trade to the Yankees teams didn’t yet know whether Chapman would be suspended and if so, for how long and thus, weren’t able to place a value on him. Wasn’t the case at the time of his trade to the Cubs.
In the case of Cueto, he was coming off a season in which he would have won the Cy Young Award if Clayton Kershaw wasn’t even better. There really wasn’t anything he could do to improve his trade value. Idk what the Reds were thinking not trading him after the 2014 season. Leake’s 2015 season was pretty much what everyone was used to with him. Pitches a lot of innings with a good ERA. He didn’t show potential buyers anything they didn’t already know and if it came down to it, he probably would have been QO’d.
” I Abide ” with what the Dude is saying. Being a long suffering Reds fan, it gets discouraging after a while. Why can’t they be like they were in the 1970s, when they made inspiring trades to get Joe Morgan to prime the Red Machine and then got Tom Seaver to try and win a 3rd WS in a row. Those were the days !
Hahahaha Reds FO can’t do anything right. Refuses to trade him last offseason because “the offers weren’t good enough” and now loses him for absolutely jack SQUAT!
I said it before, I’ll say it again. Three years ago, the Reds should have had a 1998 Marlins-esque fire sale. Everyone who wasn’t controlled through at least 2019 should have gone to the highest bidder.
One thing that’s come out of this rebuild by the Reds that’s crystal clear – no publisher will approach the front office to author Rebuilding For Dummies. They’re the dummies who should be reading the book.
Wow, this is really surprising. Cozart probably would have declined the QO anyway and fetch a 3-4 year deal in FA. Even if he were to accept the QO, he is a valuable player who could fetch a pretty solid return in a trade in terms of prospects.
Well it’s kind of unclear how the market will be this offseason, it’s definitely less of a market than normal. Paired with his injury history he could actually have a difficult time finding the kind of contract he probably deserves. It’s entirely possible he would have just accepted the QO and that would have been too big of an addition to the payroll (which they’re trying to cut anyway).
I agree he’s a solid player, but some of his numbers have suggested that last season was an aberration, so by the time the trade deadline comes up he may not even be valuable enough to get a worthwhile trade anymore.
It’s surprising until you realize the team involved. The Reds whole philosophy is to get little to nothing for every player needing to be moved on the roster.
False
Wow! The reds and the browns must have the same front office!!!
Pitching, Pitching, Pitching is where the Reds need to spend the $17 mil, there offense was pretty good, pitching not so good. I think most Reds fans expected this as part of their long term plan. Doesn’t mean I like it, but knew it was coming.
Giants, 4/70
He shouldn’t get anywhere near that deal. The Giants don’t need any more over the hill guys making bookoo bucks.
They have Crawford at 5 x 72.. (who just won his 3rd gold glove in a row) Why would they give cozart more per year?
This guy has to be the most underappreciated player ever. He had great offensive numbers, is good defensively, and plays the most important defensive position on the field. Yet no one seems to want him. What am I missing?
He’s entering his downslope of his career, was a career .246 – .289 – .385 hitter entering the 2017 season and is almost always injured (hasn’t played more than 122 games in each of the past three seasons).
Avid lifelong Reds fan here….56 years….Regular ticket buyer….blah blah blah….Jaded by the state of the team, which is a result of the economic state of the game. I love reliving the way it use to be through Strat-O-Matic…Anyway, in spite of all our first world problems (like losing a player to free agency), I’m still a sucker for the game.
Reds need to get younger at shortstop and save 17 million in process. Team shows batting is fine so get a few decent pitchers with the money.
Agreed. They didn’t contend with him at SS last year, so paying him $17.4M for 2018 won’t make the Reds any more competitive than they were in 2017.
I disagree with this move. The Reds really botched the whole rebuild thing getting pennies for Chapman, Frazier, Bruce and Phillips and nothing for Cozart. At least the Straily deal looks like a “W”.
He likely wasn’t traded because nobody really trusts his numbers. The guy has had two careers. One where he was an excellent fielder who couldn’t hit a lick. The more recent where he’s hitting like an elite SS but who’s lost some range and can’t stay healthy. The turn occurred too late in his career to be attributed to natural development. Guys really don’t increase their OPS overnight by over 200 points mid-prime. Then add in the ball park factor, and the unwillingness of the Reds to commit to him. Bruce has some of the same issues held against him in each of his trades the past couple of years.
So they hold onto him and lose him for absolutely nothing. But at least they still have their dignity! Congratz I guess?