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When calculating the amount of the Qualifying Offer, MLB and the players' union find the average salary of the 125 highest-paid players.  For each player on a 40-man roster or the 60-day DL on August 31st, they total his base salary, pro-rated signing bonus, pro-rated buyout on the first club or mutual option year, and earned bonuses at year's end.  The calculations are more complicated in some cases, but just by following the basics of that method I thought it'd be interesting to list each team's highest-paid player in 2013.

• Angels: Josh Hamilton, $17MM.
• Astros: Bud Norris, $3MM.
• Athletics: Chris Young, $9MM.
• Blue Jays: Jose Bautista, $14.2MM.
• Braves: Dan Uggla, $13.2MM.
• Brewers: Rickie Weeks: $11MM.
• Cardinals: Matt Holliday: $17.1MM (does not account for deferred money).
• Cubs: Alfonso Soriano: $19MM.
• Diamondbacks: Miguel Montero, $10MM.
• Dodgers: Adrian Gonzalez, $21.9MM.  Carl Crawford, $20.9MM.  Matt Kemp, $20.25MM.  The Dodgers are receiving $3.9MM this year from the Red Sox, so if you attribute some of that toward Gonzalez and Crawford, perhaps Kemp is their highest-paid player this year.
• Giants: Tim Lincecum, $22.125MM.
• Indians: Nick Swisher, $11MM.
• Mariners: Felix Hernandez, $19.9MM.
• Marlins: Ricky Nolasco, $11.5MM.
• Mets: Johan Santana: $26.4MM.
• Nationals: Jayson Werth, $16.6MM.
• Orioles: Nick Markakis, $15.7MM.
• Padres: Carlos Quentin, $10.5MM.
• Phillies: Cliff Lee, $27.5MM.
• Pirates: A.J. Burnett, $16.5MM.  Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez are tied as the team's highest-paid player at $8MM, if you account for money received from their old teams.
• Rangers: Adrian Beltre, $16MM.
• Rays: David Price, $10.1MM.
• Red Sox: John Lackey, $16.0MM.
• Reds: Joey Votto, $19MM.
• Rockies: Jorge De La Rosa and Michael Cuddyer, $10.5MM.
• Royals: Ervin Santana, $12.75MM.  He's still their highest-paid player if you subtract money received from the Angels.
• Tigers: Prince Fielder, $23MM.
• Twins: Joe Mauer, $23MM.
• White Sox: John Danks, $15.75MM.
• Yankees: Alex Rodriguez, $29MM.

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Blue Jays righty Josh Johnson, ranked as our top free agent starter after this season, had the shortest start of his career today in Detroit.  Johnson recorded only four outs, allowing six runs on seven hits and two walks.  With struggling starters Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum and the injured Matt Garza also on that list, the 2013-14 free agent market could be light on starting pitching.  Only three contract year hurlers have thrown well in each of their first two starts: Andy Pettitte, Paul Maholm, and A.J. Burnett.  On to today's links:

• "If I go out and do my job and do what I'm supposed to do, things will take care of themselves. That's all I can worry about," Johnson told ESPN's Jerry Crasnick regarding his upcoming free agency.
• American League teams have an advantage in signing free agent sluggers because of the designated hitter, Brewers GM Doug Melvin told ESPN's Jayson Stark.  Melvin thinks the NL will eventually adopt the DH, but before that can happen, at least six NL owners will need to be on board and there would have to be an agreement with the players' union.  One of Stark's sources suggests this change will not happen until after Commissioner Bud Selig retires.
• One more from ESPN: Jim Bowden named the ten players he finds most likely to be dealt by the deadline, beginning with the Padres' Chase Headley.  Check out MLBTR's midseason trade candidates post here.
• International bonus pool money can be traded this summer!  Ben Badler of Baseball America explains the rules.

MLBPA Executive Director Michael Weiner says the union will consider whether Jay-Z was selling his interest in the Brooklyn Nets, among other things, in deciding whether to grant him permanent certification to represent MLB players in contract talks with clubs, writes Liz Mullen of Sports Business Daily.

Jay-Z and two other employees of his Roc Nation Sports company have applied to become MLBPA-certified agents.  The rapper has secured temporary limited certification to serve as a baseball agent but is currently partnered with CAA Sports and agent Brodie Van Wagenen.

“We look forward to getting the application from all the Roc Nation individuals. We will examine if there are conflict or ownership issues that need to be addressed, including whether Mr. Carter is going to divest an interest in the Nets," Weiner said. 

Jay-Z made waves last week when he and CAA managed to pull Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano away from Scott Boras.  Many believe that the move will lead Cano to working out a contract extension with the Yankees, but Van Wagenen says that is not a given.

More than ever, baseball's best players are choosing the security of a multiyear deal as opposed to the higher risk and reward of going year-to-year.  But exactly how many of the game's best players are currently on one-year deals?

In 2012, 115 players accumulated at least 3.0 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs.  82 of them (71%) are on multi-year contracts.  Some of these players have expiring multiyear deals, like Robinson Cano, and some are on short two-year deals covering just a pair of arbitration seasons, like Clayton Kershaw.  But most of them are locked up, like Ryan Braun, Buster Posey, David Wright, Justin Verlander, Andrew McCutchen, and Adrian Beltre.  Of these 82 good players on multiyear deals, only 26 of them (32%) signed as free agents (counting Yu Darvish but excluding Jake Peavy and C.C. Sabathia).  Of the 25 players worth at least five wins in 2012, only four of them (Beltre, Michael Bourn, Aramis Ramirez, and Torii Hunter) are signed to free agent contracts.

Only 33 players who were worth three wins or more in 2012 are currently going year-to-year, including the two such free agents who signed one-year deals (Hiroki Kuroda and A.J. Pierzynski).  Taking out the two free agents (but including Aroldis Chapman since he can opt for arbitration when he has the service time), we're left with 31 young, good players who are currently going year-to-year.  The top 15 by 2012 WAR:

1. Mike Trout
2. Chase Headley
3. Jason Heyward
4. Giancarlo Stanton
5. Austin Jackson
6. Ian Desmond
7. David Price
8. Josh Reddick
9. Bryce Harper
10. Max Scherzer
11. Wade Miley
12. Stephen Strasburg
13. David Freese
14. Matt Wieters
15. David Murphy 

Why aren't these 31 players under multiyear contracts yet?  Nine of them have less than two years of big league service.  While players at that service level do sign multiyear deals, teams don't have a ton of urgency since arbitration is not looming.  Also, nine of the 31 players (and five of the top 14) are clients of the Boras Corporation.  Boras is playing a major role in advising top young players against signing multiyear deals before free agency.  Arbitration and free agency are on the decline, but not if Boras can help it.

Which agency's players have the most MLB talent?  One way of answering that question is to rank the agencies by 2012 wins above replacement (from FanGraphs).  Here are the results for total 2012 WAR (please note that players with negative WAR were omitted):

1. Boras Corporation: 104.4
2. CAA Sports: 102.1.
3. ACES: 78.8.
4. SFX: 72.6.
5. Wasserman Media Group: 66.5.
6. Excel Sports Management: 62.4.
7. The Legacy Agency: 56.0.
8. Octagon: 52.1.
9. MVP Sports Group: 34.3.
10. LSW Baseball: 25.9.
11. Beverly Hills Sports Council: 26.1.
12. Frontline: 20.6.
13. Reynolds Sports Management: 18.4.
14. Sosnick/Cobbe: 18.1.
15. Hendricks Sports: 17.4.

Some interesting information arises when we rank agencies by WAR per big league player, filtering to those with at least ten players.  WAR per player:

1. Excel Sports Management: 2.40.
2. Boras Corporation: 2.09.
3. Frontline: 2.06.
4. CAA Sports: 2.04.
5. LSW Baseball: 1.99.
6. MVP Sports Group: 1.81.
7. Octagon: 1.80.
8. The Legacy Agency: 1.75.
9. Moye Sports Associates: 1.68.
10. Reynolds Sports Management: 1.67.
11. Sosnick/Cobbe: 1.65.
12. Hendricks Sports: 1.58.
13. SFX: 1.51.
14. ACES: 1.49.
15. Wasserman Media Group: 1.41.

Beverly Hills Sports Council ranks outside the top 15, with 1.04.  They had only two players who exceeded 2.0 WAR, Jason Kipnis and Ryan Ludwick.  But perhaps in some cases WAR per player is deceiving, because a large agency like Boras gets dinged for having small contributions from players like Jacob Turner or Zach Britton.  So, here's a listing of the number of four-win players by agency:

1. Boras Corporation: 8 (Adrian Beltre, Michael Bourn, Austin Jackson, Prince Fielder, Matt Holliday, Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg).
2. CAA Sports: 7 (Robinson Cano, Ryan Braun, Buster Posey, Jake Peavy, Adam Jones, Ryan Zimmerman, David Freese).  You'll note that CAA is credited for having Cano now, even though Boras had him in 2012.
3. ACES, Excel Sports Management, The Legacy Agency: tied at 5.

Octagon and Wasserman Media Group had three each.

What have we learned?  Boras still reigns supreme, in terms of depth of MLB talent and star power.  CAA is very close on both fronts with the addition of Cano, though the second baseman's association with Roc Nation Sports muddies the waters a bit.  ACES remains strong — in terms of three-win players, they rank behind only Boras and CAA, with nine.

MLBTR's agency database was used for this post; please email me at mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com with any corrections or omissions.

From the end of the 2012 season until present, 25 players with less than six years of Major League service time signed multiyear extensions.  However, from the end of the 2011 season through April 30th, 2012, 37 such deals were signed.  So, we've seen a notable decrease in extensions this offseason.  During both offseasons, the average value of these arbitration year extensions has been around $28-29MM.

This offseason, arbitration eligible players signed deals later in their careers.  The average service time of an extended player this offseason was right around four years, as opposed to three years and 126 days the previous winter.  One notable difference is in the number of players extended with less than two years of big league service.  So far this offseason we've had only one such player, Paul Goldschmidt, and he received $32MM.  The previous offseason, six players signed with less than two years service: Jonathan Lucroy, Madison Bumgarner, Carlos Santana, Cory Luebke, Salvador Perez, and Matt Moore.  Only Bumgarner topped $21MM.  Some of those deals are among the most team-friendly in baseball, so perhaps agents have begun to dissuade these players from signing so quickly for $15MM or less.

One possible reason for the apparent decline in extensions: maybe we're not done this month.  Santana, Bumgarner, and Erick Aybar signed after April 9th, back in 2012.  Guys will certainly sign later during the season as well, but I thought it made sense to consider April 30th to be the end of the offseason, for the purposes of this post.

MLBTR's Extension Tracker was used for this post; please check it out.

Behind every multi-million dollar MLB contract, there's an agent.  Ever wonder who represents your favorite players?  Just check out MLBTR's agency database, which lists agencies for over 1,700 players.  Agents: if you notice any errors or omissions, please email me at mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.  And if you'd really like to help, click below to see a list of 86 players for whom I still need agency information.

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