Nine players were offered qualifying offers out of a total of twelve that were eligible this year, which they had to accept or reject by 5pm EST today. Of those nine, all nine of them rejected the offer and will test the free agency market.
Every player who received a qualifying offer rejected it in favor of free agency
Not surprising. At all.
Photo by Ron Schwane/Getty Images
This is my surprised face.
If you need a refresher on who was granted an offer, they are:
Based on the players eligible for the offer, this was always going to be the case. Not all of them will move on (the Royals might be able to keep one of their trio on this list around), but most will receive multiple offers before making a decision, and those offers will be worth more to them than the $17.4 million for one year they could have gotten if they accepted this opportunity.
Their teams will get compensation if they sign elsewhere, but what that compensation actually is depends on the player’s new deal and their current team’s status in the league as far as the luxury tax and revenue sharing go. You can get a lovely refresher on those details here, if you need it.
There are pros and cons to all of these players as free agents, but as long as their team knows which of their assets to highlight and which to smother and throw in a trunk during bargaining discussions, they’re going to get paid.
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