MLB Commissioner-elect Rob Manfred and MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark had decidedly different takes on the decisions by all 12 players who were given qualifying offers to turn them down last week, extending a string in which no free agent has yet accepted such an offer.
“I thought some offers would be accepted,” said Manfred, baseball’s chief operating officer, who will take over as MLB commissioner in January. He replied by email from Japan, where he was attending the Japan All-Star series.
But Clark said he was not surprised that all 12 players rejected the one-year offers. “Players presented with a Qualifying Offer carefully considered their options and decided to pursue free agency rather than accept a $15.3 million contract in a market that should be robust given the economic health of the game,” Clark wrote in an email, also from Japan.
MLB’s qualifying offer system for top free agents allows teams to receive supplemental draft pick compensation if those players sign elsewhere. The system, introduced after the 2012 season, is designed to protect teams with marquee free agents, but requires that they at least offer a one-year deal equal to the average of the top 125 contracts in the game.
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Michael Cuddyer passed on a qualifying offer from the Rockies.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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This year’s rise in the qualifying offer to a record $15.3 million, up from $14.1 million last year, led many management-side executives to believe an offer would finally be accepted. “Fifteen million dollars is a very good salary,” Manfred wrote.
New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, attending GM meetings in Arizona last week, similarly said he initially thought relief pitcher David Robertson was at least a “50-50 chance” to accept given the $15.3 million would triple his 2014 salary and make him the highest-paid closer in baseball history.
Last year, two of the 13 players receiving qualifying offers, infielders Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales, went unsigned until well after Opening Day, their free agency markets significantly chilled by the attachment of the draft pick compensation.
Both were represented by Scott Boras. Pitcher Kyle Lohse, also a Boras client, went through a similar scenario the year before, prompting the late Michael Weiner, Clark’s predecessor, to suggest the system “interfered with some players’ negotiations” in ways “not contemplated.”
But some agents said that they do not foresee a repeat situation, in part because this offseason presents a better overall free agent class. Said one baseball agent who competes against Boras, “I don’t think there is any reason it will happen this year because it happened to one agent last year. And I think last year was probably a learning experience.” The agent requested anonymity, lacking authorization to speak publicly on union matters.
Manfred declined to project whether a similar situation could be avoided this year. “It is difficult to manage situations like those because they are the product of multiple parties (players, agents and clubs) making multiple decisions,” he said.
Of the 12 players receiving qualifying offers this year, outfielder Michael Cuddyer last week signed a two-year deal with the New York Mets after three seasons in Colorado, and Detroit designated hitter Victor Martinez was reportedly close to re-signing with the Tigers for four years.
In any case, the system continues to be closely monitored in both the management and labor camps. The qualifying offers are likely to be a prime topic of collective-bargaining talks in 2016. But the league and union both said it was far too soon to project where talks on the subject will go.
Manfred said the league had not begun formal preparations for bargaining yet. Clark said, “I expect free agent compensation will be a subject of bargaining in 2016, just as it has been over our entire negotiating history.”
