Comments on: Basically every single free agent has declined their teams’ qualifying offers

By: gloccamorra

gloccamorra — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:46:00 +0000

Doesn’t this change in the bargaining agreement make the rich teams richer and the poor teams poorer, competitively? It used to be smaller market teams could get a quality player cheap after an off-year, see him rebound and get a draft pick when he signed elsewhere. A number of teams have played that game to beef up their minor leagues.

Now, the qualifying offer is near the top salary the smaller teams can afford. They can’t risk making a mistake, but the big money clubs can, and reap the draft picks. They can re-sign at a higher price or replace the players with free agents, something smaller market teams can’t do.

The bottom line is that the players’ union and MLB have taken away a critical bit of competitiveness from small market teams who have to build from the farm, and allowed the big market teams the ability to build their own minor league operations, all to get bigger salaries from the rich teams.

By: forsch31

forsch31 — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 17:08:14 +0000

Yes he did. His qualifying offer was for one-year, $13.3 million. His two-year extension with incentives to bring it up to $30 million.

What Ortiz signed with Boston was not his qualifying offer. As I said, completely different thing. So, in other words, he rejected it.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 16:02:19 +0000

Except in cases where the team would be fine with the 1 year deal and the player is too….I wouldn’t have been too surprised to see Kuroda accept this year…..but yeah, it won’t be very common.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 04:42:24 +0000

Johnny Rocco wants more, too.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 04:41:13 +0000

Kinda looks like the Davis baby.

By: rmcd13

rmcd13 — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 03:19:38 +0000

The reward for losing a free agent (sandwich round pick) who has been given a qualifying offer is less than the cost of retaining the free agent (13.3 million). If there is any chance the free agent would accept the offer and you don’t want him for that price, you aren’t going to offer it because the potential reward is so low. I would be shocked if a free agent ever actually accepts the qualifying offer under the current structure.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 02:51:31 +0000

You think it will make you feel better, but you will just want more.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 02:23:14 +0000

In other words, Ortiz did not reject his qualifying offer.

By: forsch31

forsch31 — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 02:19:49 +0000

Ortiz signed an extension with Boston. He did not accept his qualifying offer. Completely different thing.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 01:49:36 +0000

Hi Craig. You sort of missed David Ortiz who did resign with Boston.

By: canadabaseball

canadabaseball — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 01:15:08 +0000

Jesus something happen already a big signing or a trade F#”&ING something

By: vallewho

vallewho — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 00:44:50 +0000

but I do think it’s the right time to part ways wish Swish, because of the $$$.

By: vallewho

vallewho — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 00:36:46 +0000

yeah, because we know that they have done such a great job at picking winners during the past 20 years.

By: chill1184

chill1184 — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 23:15:28 +0000

The pic really puts the blog together

By: mattyflex

mattyflex — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 22:56:17 +0000

I took two minutes out of my day today just to think about how much I love memes.

By: mybrunoblog

mybrunoblog — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 22:51:43 +0000

I’m a Yankees fan. Saying goodbye to Nick Swisher and that annoying smile will be a relief. Bring on some draft picks.
I wonder if teams may back away from some FA because they don’t want to surrender the draft picks.