When news of Matt Wieters accepting the Orioles' qualifying offer spread yesterday afternoon, some fans immediately feared this meant the Orioles would have less money to sign Chris Davis or other free agents.
Well, Wieters made $8.3 million last year and through arbitration, had he been an arbitration-eligible player this year, his salary probably would have increased to $10-$11 million. So this is no huge overpay, here but Wieters will play for $15.8 million in 2016.
Dan Duquette said the Orioles can still sign Davis and if they can do that, there are funds available to make some needed upgrades. The offseason is just starting, folks, and it's too soon to panic or pass many judgments. But some are looking to beat the rush, I guess.
Because some fans were disappointed by last offseason, they assume the same will happen this year. But this time, the Orioles have more money coming off the books, and this winter follows an 81-win campaign, not a 96-win year. Let's see how it plays out.
Perhaps now that the Orioles will not get a draft pick for Wieters leaving, the Orioles will become more reluctant to part with the No. 15 pick they hold in round one next June. If they signed any player that turned down a qualifying offer they would have to give up that No. 15 pick. Players that turned down qualifying offers include pitchers Jordan Zimmerman, Zack Greinke, Hisashi Iwakuma and Yovani Gallardo, to name a few. Position players that passed on qualifying offers include Alex Gordon, Jason Heyward, Dexter Fowler, Daniel Murphy and Justin Upton.
It became clear earlier this week that Atlanta would not be making a push to sign Wieters, as many had speculated for awhile. But as someone suggested to me yesterday, maybe Wieters and agent Scott Boras look at it this way: Wieters plays for a big salary this year, then next winter Atlanta makes the big push to sign Wieters long-term, just in time to move into a new stadium in 2017. Perhaps such a potential future scenario impacted this decision by Wieters.
Meanwhile, with Wieters accepting the qualifying offer, the Orioles now have 37 players on their 40-man roster. At this point, I still expect the club to add left-hander Chris Lee this month to protect him from the Rule 5 draft in December. He may be the only minor leaguer they add before the Rule 5.
Boston adds Kimbrel: The Boston Red Sox traded four prospects to San Diego last night to get closer Craig Kimbrel. While the Red Sox had a bullpen ERA of 4.24 last year to rank 26th in the majors, they now add Kimbrel. He has 224 saves since 2011 to lead the majors.
Boston plans to use Koji Uehara in the eighth and Kimbrel in the ninth. New York has Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances for the late innings. Last year, the Orioles had Darren O'Day and Zach Britton for those innings.
Does Boston's move last night put more pressure on the Orioles to retain O'Day and maintain their one-two, late-inning punch?