Under the new collective bargaining agreement Type A and Type B free agent designations have been ditched in favor of teams needing to make a “qualifying offer” to free agents in order to receive compensation for their departure.
Qualifying offers are basically one-year deals for the average salary of the top 125 highest-paid players, which equals $13.3 million for 2013. Players have until next Friday to accept or decline the qualifying offer, and if they decline and sign elsewhere the old team gets a first-round pick as compensation and the new team is stripped of a first-round pick.
Today was the deadline to make qualifying offers and the following free agents received one:
– Josh Hamilton, Rangers
– David Ortiz, Red Sox
– Rafael Soriano, Yankees
– Nick Swisher, Yankees
– Hiroki Kuroda, Yankees
– B.J. Upton, Rays
– Kyle Lohse, Cardinals
– Michael Bourn, Braves
– Adam LaRoche, Nationals
For a lot of those guys there’s zero chance of the qualifying offer being accepted. Kuroda seems like the best bet to simply take the one-year deal.
Prominent free agents who did not receive qualifying offers (but are still able to re-sign):
– Mike Napoli, Rangers
– Torii Hunter, Angels
– Shaun Marcum, Brewers
– Francisco Rodriguez, Brewers
– Angel Pagan, Giants
– Edwin Jackson, Nationals
