KC Royals: Qualifying offer to free agents set around $18 million
The KC Royals will have several key players hitting the free agent market this offseason. Free agents who are offered the qualifying offer from their current team can sign it for one year or seek free agency.
The qualifying offer this offseason will be around $18 million, per Buster Olney. Olney tweeted the news on Thursday and this is all too important for Kansas City Royals fans, as a lot of their guys will be extended a qualifying offer this winter.
For those of you who are unfamiliar how the qualifying offer works, I’ll share from MLB’s Glossary on the details.
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"Clubs wishing to receive compensatory Draft picks for the loss of a free agent can make a one-year “qualifying offer,” worth the mean salary of MLB’s 125 highest-paid players, to their impending free agents prior to the onset of free agency.More from KC KingdomWin $650 GUARANTEED Plus $100 Off NFL Sunday Ticket With Caesars, FanDuel and DraftKings Kansas Promos!This Plus-Money Bobby Witt Jr. Prop Bet is on Fire (Hit in 15/21 Games)!How to Bet on the Chiefs vs. Cardinals in NFL Preseason Week 2The Royals Need to Extend Bobby Witt Jr. ImmediatelyThe 3 Most Intriguing Games on the Chiefs’ ScheduleA player will have 10 days to accept or decline the qualifying offer, during which time he can negotiate with other teams to survey his market value. Should a player decide to accept the qualifying offer, he is signed for the following year at that predetermined rate (i.e., the mean salary of the league’s 125 highest-paid players). If a player rejects the qualifying offer, he is free to further explore the free-agent market."
To sum up, say the Royals extend a qualifying offer to Eric Hosmer (which they more than likely will). If Hosmer accepts the offer, he would sign a one-year deal with the Royals for the 2018 season and earn the given amount (see tweet below).
If Hosmer declined, however, he’s free to sign with a team for as many years and as much money as they’ll have him for. Whatever team signed Hosmer could potentially lose a first round draft pick, which would go to Kansas City instead.
Teams have been told that at the qualifying offer to free agents this offseason will be in the $18 million range, maybe $18.1 million.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 20, 2017
The Kansas City Royals more than likely will extend offers to Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, and Mike Moustakas. If any of those guys accepted it, I think Dayton Moore and the Royals would be overjoyed to ink them to a one-year deal while trying to work out a long-term deal.
If those guys turn it down, then the Royals could end up with three first round draft picks assuming the players in question sign elsewhere for more than $50 million. That very well could be the scenario we’re looking at this offseason.
As for Alcides Escobar and Jason Vargas, the Royals probably won’t offer qualifying deals to either party. Escobar would definitely sign it after having a major down year and Vargas could potentially sign it as well, but would at least be a little more worthy of that money.
We’re only a little over halfway through the 2017 season, but talks of the offseason and what will happen to beloved KC Royals players will be on everyone’s mind leading up to the end of the year. We’ll all just have to sit tight and see what happens when it happens.