WHAT IS A QUALIFYING OFFER?
The qualifying offer for 2015 is $15.8 million for one year of salary.
It’s an average of the top-125 salaries in baseball.
The offer can be extended to any free agent.
The offer must be extended within five days of the completion of the World Series.
The player can obviously accept the one-year deal.
If the player turns down the deal he becomes a free agent.
- NO PLAYER HAS EVER ACCEPTED THE QUALIFYING OFFER.
If the player does turn down the offer he is then tied to draft pick compensation. This means that the team that signs the free agent will have to forfeit their first unprotected pick in the following year’s draft. The first 10 selection sports are protected. Here are those 10 teams: Phillies, Reds, Braves, Rockies, Brewers, Athletics, Marlins, Padres, Tigers, and White Sox. The picks don’t go directly to the teams that lost the free agent. Instead, those teams get a pick at the end of the first round.
Here is a list of players who received a qualifying offer in 2015:
| Player | Team |
| Brett Anderson | Los Angeles Dodgers |
| Wei-Yin Chen | Baltimore Orioles |
| Chris Davis | Baltimore Orioles |
| Ian Desmond | Washington Nationals |
| Marco Estrada | Toronto Blue Jays |
| Dexter Fowler | Chicago Cubs |
| Yovani Gallardo | Texas Rangers |
| Alex Gordon | Kansas City Royals |
| Zack Greinke | Los Angeles Dodgers |
| Jason Heyward | St. Louis Cardinals |
| Hisashi Iwakuma | Seattle Mariners |
| Howie Kendrick | Los Angeles Dodgers |
| Ian Kennedy | San Diego Padres |
| John Lackey | St. Louis Cardinals |
| Daniel Murphy | New York Mets |
| Colby Rasmus | Houston Astros |
| Jeff Samardzija | Chicago White Sox |
| Justin Upton | San Diego Padres |
| Matt Wieters | Baltimore Orioles |
| Jordan Zimmermann | Washington Nationals |
|
NOT ELIGIBLE
Marlon Byrd, Giants
Yoenis Cespedes, Mets
Tyler Clippard, Mets
Johnny Cueto, Royals
Austin Jackson, Cubs
Scott Kazmir, Astros
Mike Leake, Giants
Mark Lowe, Blue Jays
Mike Napoli, Rangers
Gerardo Parra, Orioles
David Price, Blue Jays
Joakim Soria, Pirates
Chase Utley, Dodgers
Ben Zobrist, Royals
- These players are not eligible for a qualifying offers because they were traded during the season.
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