Qualifying offers in baseball have been the bane of agents and teams for a long time.
When Phllies starter Jeremy Hellickson decided to accept the Phillies’ $17.2 million qualifying offer ahead of the deadline, he said he was considering declining the QO but potential suitors told
his agent, Scott Boras, that they were reluctant to give up a draft pick
in order to sign the right-hander.
Some teams value their draft picks more than free agents. Other teams, like the Yankees, churn their veterans for compensation picks while losing other picks by signing other teams free agents.
Players with attached draft pick compensation have
had a tough time finding a home in free agency since the QO system was
adopted. Outfielders Ian Desmond and Dexter Fowler did not sign with their respective teams, the Rangers and Cubs, until
late February prior to this past season, due to draft pick compensation
being attached to them. Neither player got a multi-year deal and settled
for salaries, $8 million and $13 million respectively, below last
season’s QO value of $15.8 million.
Yahoo's Jeff Passan wrote that there is “increasing sentiment” coming out of collective bargaining
agreement negotiations that the QO system will not be around for the
next offseason. That’s great for free agents and teams that want to sign
them, obviously, but bad for teams losing those free agents unless
they’re allowed to recoup value in some other fashion.
The QO was designed to help small market teams that lost control of their star players to free agency to get something in return to developing talent for the large market teams. Some would say that revenue sharing and protected picks should be enough compensation for those clubs. Others felt that it was leverage for existing clubs to keep their star players. But the formula for setting the QO has gone through the roof, creating an artificially high floor in the free agent market. Some team owners gripe about $17.2 million to retain a player or negotiate with a free agent with that price tag already on similar assets.
In order for the program to change, the small market clubs will demand some other form of compensation. For example, if MLB does institute an international draft (with foreign players and representatives abhor), small market teams may be awarded extra sandwich compensation picks between rounds. Or, a team signing a "restricted" free agent (however that term will be re-defined) may have to pay some cash (development costs). Agents would not like that because a team could shave the payment off their contract offers to players. But in most CBA provisions, it comes down to money either going into the players' or owners' pockets.
