3:58pm: The Royals confirmed that they have made a qualifying offer, per Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star (on Twitter).
12:46pm: The Royals have indicated to Ervin Santana that he will receive a qualifying offer, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca (on Twitter). The $14.1MM offer will allow the Royals to receive a compensatory draft pick at the end of the first round should Santana reject the offer and sign elsewhere.
That's the most likely scenario for Santana, who rebounded from a disastrous 2012 season to turn in 211 innings of a 3.24 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9. Santana figures to be one of the top three arms on the free agent market along with Masahiro Tanaka and Matt Garza, which led me to predict a five-year, $75MM contract for the righty on the open market in my free agent profile of him last month.
