Colby Rasmus reportedly accepted his qualifying offer from the Astros on Thursday – although the club has not confirmed.
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Jeff Luhnow and the Houston Astros made a win-win decision to offer free-agent hitter Colby Rasmus a $15.8 million qualifying offer for one year to stay in Houston. Fox Sports reported that Rasmus was the first player ever to accept the qualifying offer when he officially agreed to sign the Houston Astros today.
Chris Davis declined his qualifying offer from the Orioles on Friday and remains a free agent, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation reports. Just last season, the Orioles lost Nelson Cruz in free agency to the Seattle Mariners, and they may be looking at another offseason of losing key players. “One of the big things, too, is my family loves Baltimore and they would be more than ecstatic to be there for another year”. In 2015, he made 31 starts (same as in 2014), went 11-8 (after a 16-win 2014) and had career bests in ERA (3.34) and WHIP (1.218). Instead, it appears he’ll settle for returning to the Blue Jays for what amounts to the qualifying offer plus a second year at $10 million.
Rasmus and Anderson would have entered a free-agent pool that’s swimming with ace-level pitchers and quality outfielders, so their choice to take the money and wait until next year, when there’ll be less talent available, makes sense.
The qualifying offer salary is determined by the average of the highest 125 contracts in the major leagues. Not a bad chunk of change, but certainly not the big bucks that a few players are going on bet in baseball’s rich free-agent market.
If Wieters had rejected the qualifying offer and signed with another team, the Orioles would have received a compensatory draft pick in the 2016 amateur draft. Kennedy ultimately joined a group of 16 players who declined their offer.
“For a one-year deal, there’s no place more comfortable than playing baseball for the Orioles”, the 29-year-old said. 267 with eight home runs and 25 RBIs in 75 games last season. After an injury plagued 2015, he has a chance to re-establish his value on a one year deal with Baltimore, before potentially cashing in next offseason.
Here, then is a quick breakdown of all the players who rejected their qualifying offer, Estrada included, and their situations. He’s also had three years in which he totaled less fWAR combined in three seasons (2.3) than he did in any of his good seasons individually.
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This Astros team can only get better in 2016 with the core players aboard.
