Pablo Sandoval rejects Giants’ qualifying offer

Twelve free agents received $15.3 million qualifying offers before Monday’s deadline, guaranteeing their most recent teams draft pick compensation should they sign elsewhere before next June’s draft. It might have seemed impossible that anyone would wait that long to sign somewhere just to avoid giving up a draft pick, but the summer of 2014 taught us otherwise with Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales. It was unknown if any of the 12 would become the first player to accept a qualifying offer as of Monday’s deadline, but we’ll keep track of their decisions this week as they come in.

In a move that will shock no one, the Giants’ Pablo Sandoval was the first to reject his qualifying offer, according to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal. The Giants didn’t submit it to their third baseman believing there was a chance he would accept it: Sandoval received the qualifying offer in case he signs somewhere besides San Francisco. The Giants are likely to be in negotiations with Panda, and possibly up until the moment he signs a new deal, so this was nothing more than an insurance policy so they get something for losing one of the greatest players of the Brian Sabean era.

While Sandoval faces some competition for open third base jobs from Chase Headley -- a fellow free agent who did not receive a qualifying offer and could end up signing for a lesser deal -- he’s at no risk of going unsigned for long at all. He’s precisely the kind of top free agent who finds a new home by or at the December winter meetings, the kind who helps set the market for those below him. That deal, whoever it ends up being with, will likely be for nine figures, putting Sandoval in the same kind of company as other third basemen such as David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman, and Evan Longoria.