The seven free agents who were issued qualifying offers by their former teams must decide by 4pm CT today whether or not to accept. You can get the full rundown of how the qualifying offer system works here, but in brief — if a player takes the offer, they will return to their team on a one-year, $17.9MM contract for the 2019 season and can never again be issued a QO in any future trips to the free agent market. If a player rejects the offer, their former team will receive a compensatory draft pick should another club sign the player. (The signing team will also have to give up at least one draft pick and potentially some funds from their international signing bonus pool.)
Most free agents reject the QO in search of a richer, more long-term contract, and this is expected to be the case for most (though not all) of this year’s qualifying offer class. The MLB Player’s Association has now announced all of these decisions, so they’re all official:
- A.J. Pollock will enter free agency after turning down the Diamondbacks’ qualifying offer, tweets Jon Heyman of Fancred. He’ll be the top center fielder available and should draw interest from a fair number of teams, though his market demand is not yet clear.
- Bryce Harper declined the Nationals’ qualifying offer, per Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com (via Twitter). That’s utterly unsurprising, as the superstar is lining up nine-figure offers as we speak.
- Craig Kimbrel is heading to the market rather than taking the one-year pact to stay with the Red Sox, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com was among those to tweet. The veteran closer is expected to command a much larger and lengthier contract in free agency.
- Patrick Corbin won’t be accepting the Diamondbacks’ qualifying offer, as per Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman (Twitter link). No surprises with this decision, as Corbin is set to receive the biggest contract of any free agent pitcher this winter.
- Yasmani Grandal won’t accept the Dodgers’ qualifying offer, ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez (via Twitter). Even in the wake of another mediocre postseason performance, there was little doubt Grandal would turn down the QO, as he projects to earn a strong contract as the best catcher in the free agent market.
- Dallas Keuchel has rejected the Astros’ qualifying offer, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (Twitter link). The ground-ball specialist and 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner will hit the open market, and it remains to be seen if a return to Houston could be in the cards. The Astros could also lose Charlie Morton in free agency, and Lance McCullers Jr. will miss all of 2019 recovering from Tommy John surgery.
- Hyun-Jin Ryu has accepted the Dodgers’ qualifying offer, as we explored in detail earlier today. Ryu becomes the sixth player to ever accept a QO, out of the 80 free agents who have been offered the deal over the last seven offseasons.
Would love to see my Halos jump on Kuechel, in a professional capacity of course.
As an Angel fan as well I wouldn’t mind see Keuchel and Grandal. Both would be huge upgrades
Seems like Artie has pushed for big name bats and hasn’t been as inclined to upgrade the pitching staff over the years. For a team featuring the games best already it’s puzzling to me.
But I also don’t follow them everyday. They added Ohtani and Wilson(Wilson not so great but who knew at the time)
You own the Angels?
Kuechel to the Reds makes too much sense.
Except for Keuchel!! Ok
lol
The Reds would have to pay a premium to get Kuechel. But it may be worth it because he’s a ground ball pitcher. The Reds have had to pay the pitcher premium before – Francisco Cordero got a little sweetener in his deal to convince him that the Reds were ready to compete.
Makes sense for who? The Reds are average middle America, and they stink and should be fully rebuilding.
Don’t be that guy Nick
Agreed. Nick needs new material.
Yes he’s the owner that’s exactly what he meant
Good, let another team enjoy the frustration that Grandal brings.
Dodgers have a couple of very good catching prospects so Grandal’s departure may hurt in the short run, but they won’t be stuck with a bad contract.
It won’t even hurt in the short run if the Dodgers can sign someone better, which should not be too difficult. I still don’t understand why Grandal is so often rated above Ramos.
Grandal carries a better defensive reputation mostly, I think.
Throw in a bit more consistency year to year with the bat, and particularly his career walk rate being double Ramos’, and the edge is there.
Having either as your starter isn’t necessarily a bad thing mind you.
Does Grandal have a recent history of injuries?
He’s never been better than 4th on the leader board in passed balls. Mostly he’s first or second in that dubious department. I mean you watch him try to backhand all those pitches in the dirt and you wonder why he doesn’t pass even more. Then there’s all those dropped assists. If he’s got a better reputation for defense it has to be only due to the voodoo pitch framing stat because it can’t be for ball handling. Ramos is more of a contact hitter of the type the Dodgers need. Whether the FO believes that or not, I guess we will find out.
The PBs comes with the framing, and he is the best-rated framer in baseball. He’s one of the top 3 catchers in baseball, and, save for trading for Realmuto, is virtually impossible to fully replace in the near term. He clanks, is streaky, and stunk it up in the playoffs. In the overall picture, he was very good, and his FA contract will reflect that.
He passes balls because of the framing? I’d be interested in your theories about how that could be true.
Not that anyone has a theory about how pitch framing works. It just… is.
What makes pitch framing “voodoo”?
What makes it real? What explainable skill is involved? How can a catcher be a good pitcher framer in one season, and a poor one the next? Did he forget how it was done? Did he ever know?
How come hitters occasionally have bad seasons? Or pitchers? Players have bad defensive seasons occasionally. Remember when steve sax forgot how to throw to first?
U are too optimistic on Grandal. Anyone who watched the post seasonS saw how poorly he fielded – a crap shoot under pressure and didn’t hit for beans either. Manager doubted him big time.
Of course there is a science to it. And he’s the best at it. Do some research and you’ll understand very quickly why good framers have several passed balls. Youre looking to keep your glove in a certain area of the plate and you’re trying to pull back pitches that are balls
Sure, but these various types of slumps can be attributed to something we know exists: for a pitcher, mechanical issues; for hitters, pitchers finding and exploiting holes in their swings; for any player, incipient (or known) injuries. And yes, sometimes, issues of concentration or focus, what in shorthand we call a case of the yips.
So, before collecting data, you need to start with a hypothesis for what you think is going on. I have searched for a hypotheses to support pitch framing, and have yet to find any. Instead what I find argues against it. Such as: umpires say they call a ball or strike based on where the pitch passes through the strike zone, and that where the ball is caught by the catcher is not a factor. To disbelieve that, you need a theory about how a catcher can “fool” umpires into not doing what all umpires are trained to do, and say they do. So when I hear that some catchers can perform a Jedi trick that nobody can describe or explain, I am skeptical. To me it looks like magical thinking.
Do pitches get called balls when they appear to be strikes, and vice-versa? Of course. I think umpires are fooled by the same methods that pitchers use to deceive batters. Probably don’t need to go into that, it’s something we should all know about already. Has anyone made a statistical analysis of how borderline pitches are called based on break, speed, arm angle, and location? If so, have they used it for controlling pitch framing stats? Intuitively this seems likely to explain a lot of the variability currently attributed to pitch framing and, it is based on a real hypothesis.
You are those Dodger fans that will say whatever fiction you need to to take the sting out of something. Here are the facts:
Grandal had 9 passed balls putting him 9th in the entire MLB. For the sake of better reference he was third for the year in innings behind the plate. With 345.
foxsports.com/mlb/stats?season=2018&category=…
Not really related but
Acuna for Soto and Scherzer. LOL jk wouldnt do it as a brave fan
What you guys think though
Wouldn’t do it as a braves fan… what? Scherzer is coming off a 9.5 WAR, 2.53 ERA season and is signed for 3 more years at age 33. Soto and Acuna were very close in terms of production this year, it would be ridiculous for the Nats to do this.
I’m always amazed how biased some people can be.
scherzer is not for contract much longer and acuna is better than soto
is he really signed for three years?
Be realistic, they’re basically equal. You get Max for 3 more years?
You trade Acuna.
Scherzer has a TON of deferred money in that deal, though.
respectfully i disagree. Acuna has edged out Soto but thus far but the differences have been miniscule.When you factor in Soto being over a year younger it is possible that Soto has a higher ceiling even though both have Hall of Fame potential if America and baseball are still around in 2050. But if you add in 3 years of Max Scherzer at his Cy Young level peak and the deal is way too lopsized to even consider..
Well, Soto’s better than Acuna in the long run, in my opinion, so …
I dont know about that, Acuna missed two months and still had more homers than Soto
You do realize that Soto missed that exact same two months, right? Soto had 7 more plate appearances than Acuna, so your stat isn’t really that impressive.
Based on what? Not stats.
Erie delete your account
if the nats want to rebuild then they should get rid of Scherzer
Seems like everyone missed my LOL jk part, just trying to dump stuff out there and get creative thats whats fun
not just everyone revolving around the same freaking scenarios
They can rebuild and trade Scherzer without throwing in Soto.
then they dont get acuna
Why the **** would they trade Soto?
AcUnA iS bEtTeR
Dumb
Scherzer for Clint Frazier and Chance Adams and another prospect is an interesting trade scenario
It amazes me how many people bite on this stuff. Come on people – obvious troll is obvious.
He was joking but then asked what we thought. He’s not trolling. He’s just dumb
seems like if you just want to have some fun and throw stuff out there everyone is like
NO NO NO YOUR SO STUPID ONLY TALK ABOUT TRADES THAT ARE MENTIONED IN ARTICLES EVERYONE SAY THE EXACT SAME THING
You know these possiblities are meant to be built on not ripped apart
Your “trade” amounts to the National’s just flat out giving the division rival Braves Scherzer for nothing and for no reason at all, and then you saying “no,(Braves) wouldn’t do it”
That’d be like someone saying “the Red Sox should just give the Yankees Sale” or “Indians should just give the Twins Kluber” or “Astros should just give the A’s Verlander” …only to say the team receiving the Ace for nothing would be losing the deal
That isn’t a trade proposal at all, and especially not something to be talked about or expanded on – it’s straight nonsense said for who knows what idiotic reason
I misunderstood Scherzers contract chill out
Im trying to start some new ideas, dont have to stick to the same exact trade
“I misunderstood Scherzer’s contract” I don’t know why his contract even comes into play. Acuna for Soto straight up is a no by both clubs. Scherzer for acuna is something more to talk about
Go to an outhouse with trolling somewhere else dude ! Like joke places or Rad places. Not here – be serious on this medium like most people . How old are you ?
Dodger fans whom keep on hating on Grandal, dont know luxury they have, having offense from that position, even w/ .138/.266/.276, 14 games in playoffs, with defensive lapses. Dude’s still elite framer, who hit 24 HR, had a strong .815 OPS over 140 games.
.107 average in the postseason. It would be worse but they wised up and started sitting him the last two postseasons. A good framer with some pop. Dodgers don’t need any more power hitters with low averages. They need solid defense and a contact hitter.
Ok but was giving his average in the 2018 playoffs. I do admit .107 in playoffs, very Nick Swisher-Esque
The worst Jekyll / Hyde great regular season to terrible postseason performer I’ve seen in my life is Nick Swisher. That’s what Grandal’s regular season/playoff “splits” remind me of but Catcher is wayyyy more valuable than OF.
He’s not that great in the regular season either. His overall numbers are somewhat skewed. He will have one hot streak of 3 weeks, batting .300+ and that props his numbers up for the rest of the year for a .240 average. Ground ball Grandal. The occasional HR with too many double plays and strike outs.
Yasmani Strand-all.
Ground ball Grandal? He was essentially league average last year (41.1% GB) – 78th out of 140 qualified hitters.
Slightly above average K rate, but well offset by an elite BB rate (13.9%) – 13th out of 140.
And he grounded into 12 DP’s last year, once again pretty much smack bang league average – 69th out of 140. And incredibly consistent for his career – 11, 10 and 12 in the last 3 years.
Something tells me you’ve got an idea in your head, that doesn’t quite match up to reality.
Grandal should have taken the $17+ million. It’s a nice way to sooth the angst about next year’s free agency.
Yup. They will miss Grandal this season when the team gets no offensive output from the C position. Barnes is an automatic out at the plate
If I were the Dodgers I would be doing whatever I can to get jtr. That dude is a catcher your team can’t pass up. Believe me as a Giants fan, that’s bad on my part but they need to shore up that catchers position
You are 100% correct.
Actually, the Giants might be looking into both catchers too, depending on what Zaidi plans to do. I don’t think their trading pieces will/can go to a Realmuto before other needed positions but is Buster going to play more first? Do they trade Belt? Maybe you guys end up with Grandal. No one knows the staus and worth of Grandal more than Zaidi.
Yup Grandal is great at voodoo. Baseball, not so much.
Yasmani Grandal’s offensive splits were atrocious. He had two months last year where he hit like .350 and four months where he hit around .150. He had similar splits in 2017.
I feel like the Dodgers can get a solid one to two year defensive catcher stopgap for much less and use the money elsewhere to upgrade at second base.
Why one earth would you use 100% arbitrary monthly splits? That’s not how baseball should ever be analyzed.
Agreed. Bryce Harper had a similar year and he’s gonna get 350+ million. Baseball is a game of highs and lows, hot and cold. It’s just part of the game.
I’ve never seen a catcher who can’t seem to catch like Grandal does. I’m not talking WPs or PBs but rather throws home. When he is needed to catch and tag the runner, he will not be able to do it.
I’m very happy he’s decided to move on.
I’d be happy if he did as well but keep in mind it’s a definite possibly for the Dodgers to make him a multiyear offer. The draft pick burden gives them that leverage, if they choose to exercise it. Hoping that is not the FO’s thinking.
You’re a sharp guy, one of the better posters here for years.
A baseball team revolves around its catcher.
The Dodgers have a lot of money invested (pretty much leading MLB) not just in the payroll, but in front office staff (excessive), scouting, the farm system,etc.
There is no way the Dodgers go into 2019 without an experienced ML catcher.
Are there enough prospects left to sway the Marlins about JT?
Thanks, good to hear. Feels like I am swimming upstream here a lot of the time.
Yes, they really do need a veteran presence at backstop. The Dodgers have several highly-rated catching prospects coming up. I wouldn’t be averse to one of them being traded for Realmuto. The Dodgers getting the last two arb years on Realmuto as a bridge to one of the new guys, and the forever rebuilding Marlins getting a budget prospect. Could make a lot of sense for both teams.
I do believe if you look at the name Rocky Gale long enough, you will notice the strong, veteran presence. Or at least its guttiness.
Yup, very sober statement.
I think we’d all love to see JTR and we do have the prospects to get him, unless maybe we want to trade for a really nice 2nd baseman instead. Dodgers FO could re-sign Grandal, as you mention.
Its easy for everyone to want Grandal gone but its not as easy to replace him with someone “better” considering all the other things that have to fall into place to make that happen.
Rocky Gale? I’d also notice a 30 year old ballplayer who hasn’t played in two dozen major league games. He might make a good backup catcher, somewhere, some day. Maybe in AAA.
If the Dodgers really want Realmuto they have what it takes to come up with the deal. And of course Ramos is a free agent, so that just costs money.
Stephen Vogt on Oakland would like a word. He took pitches off his body during literally every opponent At Bat. He couldn’t actually catch the ball very well at all.
Sanchez from the NYY is worse.
Really? Grandal was hot and cold, mostly cold and a rotten on defense in the playoffs & World Series was pathetic and glad he’s gone! Any catcher is better than Grandal!
Keuchel to Cincinnati, Grandal to Atlanta if they don’t get Ramos, Halos might jump at Grandal too. Maybe Houston goes at Grandal as well.
Grandal not only rejected the Dodgers’ offer by he also rejected their suggestion that he learn to catch pitches in the dirt like most other catchers do. Good luck finding a job as a DH
He really fell apart… so frustrating to watch.
Would love to see a line on how many of those 80 players should have accepted the QO in hindsight.
I feel like there’s a chance that AJ Pollock accepts the qualifying offer
No way.
and you were wrong, lol
Is Patrick Corbin going to sign with the Yankees or is Brian Cashman content with Paxton and Happ?
I hope they just spend $ and save minor league talent for deadline upgrades as needed.
They probably aren’t getting Paxton though???
Corbin & Happ > Paxton. Paxton will cost too much. If they’re trading then aim big and try for Kluber
Plus Pax is always hurt
Did Rob Refsnyder and Blake Swihart decline theirs?
It’s getting old by now, and I’m a Giants fan. Every teams fans overvalues their prospects, and we could be saying the same thing about many Braves and Padres prospects in a couple years.
You must not have been here during the Sonny Gray trade season
On these comment threads, it seems the Braves, Blue Jays, Mets, Yankees and Red Sox are by far the worst at overvaluing their prospects. That’s a murderers row of total baseball cluelessness where they ALL think their prospects are future HOFers, until they are traded then they become the worst players ever and their team “won” the trade.
We really need to stop saying things like that, there are no winners in trades because no two teams have the same circumstances attached to them. Sigh.
There are winners in trades for prospects.
The Red Sox absolutely stole Chris Sale.
They just WON a WS Championship.
P.S. You missed the Phillies in that list.
Ramos should be the best catching option available. He’s got a good approach to the plate and is pretty consistent. Grandal, on the other hand, is streaky.
I agree. Hoping the Mets spend for Ramos. Far better catcher then Grandal.
Grandal is going to regret rejecting the QO.
No way. He is a catcher that can hit. Russell Martin was a similar guy and his market went nuts. There are already rumors of Grandal having a big market. He will get a big payday
I guarantee that he doesn’t get more than 3 yrs, $30 million. Mark it down.
Ok sure. And when its wrong will you show up?
Danny, you said he would “regret” not accepting $17M because you think he’s going to “regretfully” get $30M?
Man. I don’t even know what to say….just, why post this? Why??? I’m not sure you understand what regret means.
Give him a break..he said 3 years…10 m. a year
If GM’s didn’t learn anything from the Russell Martin contract they should be fired.
Uhh? No he won’t. The Astros right now would give him more than he would get from the QO.
He is going to make his money.
Preference should be defensive at the catcher position. Grandal will indeed draw a lot of interest as opposed to Maldanado, but with all due respect, a teams corner OFer’s and the infield corners should provide the power. Pitchers should feel comfortable with that #2 position. Impossible to know who will be better, Acuna or Soto, it would be nice to see both turn out to be great. Soto’s patience at the plate bid well for being better, but again who knows.
Maldonado isn’t anything special defensively. He has passed ball issues as well. He does one thing and that is throw out runners… he is fantastic at that but that is it.
half ah billion for harpers hair flow
Grandal laid an egg in the post season for the Dodgers. I don’t understand the rationale of walking. I hope the Moustakas thing happens to him.
It’s pretty simple. He will easy get 45-60. The lack of offense at the C position is currently not existent. I think he’s been run down going into playoffs and really if you can spell him with a good back up catcher he’ll be more than fine. Injuries have taken their tole on his in the second half. The problem is Barnes never got on track after his ST injury and succumbed to the sophomore slump. I hope Grandal gets every bit of the 60M.
Some MLB players who can can hit should consider learning to catch if they want to make more money
Anyone of any value signing with Cincinnati is laughable.
I wouldn’t be surprised if LAD signs a guy like Rene Rivera. He is a solid platoon option…albeit a glove/arm first catcher with some pop. He can be streaky at the plate, but he isn’t a blackhole for the much lower AAV. Given LAD’s payroll outlook, he’d be a good value for a team that may not want to drop the $45-$55m it will take to get Grandal.
I wouldn’t be surprised but I’d still be disappointed. Rivera hasn’t been a quality catching option for five years at least. If they were going the route of not improving at catcher they’d be just as well off using Barnes backed up with Gale and/or Farmer.