Baseball’s hot stove has started stewing. The free-agent market began thinning last week, as the first few free agents signed, and the market was further clarified Monday with the passing of the deadline for players to sign qualifying offers — one-year contracts valued at $17.2 million.
On Monday, second baseman Neil Walker and right-hander Jeremy Hellickson accepted qualifying offers to remain with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, respectively, for the 2017 season. The other eight players extended qualifying offers — none of them starting pitchers — rejected the offer. They are now free agents and are tied to draft pick compensation. The team that signs them must surrender a first-round draft pick to the player’s former team.
The qualifying offer system has been in place since the 2012-13 offseason. Five players have accepted qualifying offers, all in the past 13 months: Matt Wieters, Colby Rasmus, Brett Anderson, Hellickson and Walker, the former Pirates first-round pick who resides in Gibsonia.
Walker, rehabbing from back surgery that ended his 2016 season prematurely, hit .282 and socked 23 home runs in 113 games for the Mets. With a hefty salary now locked up for 2017, he will be auditioning next season for an even more lucrative payday in free agency next fall.
“Happy to say I’m back in Orange and Blue for 2017!!” Walker wrote on Twitter. “Let’s go Mets!”
Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reported Monday there is increased sentiment in collective bargaining agreement negotiations that the current qualifying offer system “is dying as of next year.” Teams feel punished for signing big-ticket players. Those players feel weighed down by the pick.
The Pirates did not extend a qualifying offer this year. They are unlikely to sign one of the players attached to draft pick compensation. Hellickson, who had a 3.71 ERA in 189 innings last season, was the only one on the qualifying offer list who represented the Pirates’ greatest need: starting pitching.
Once the Atlanta Braves signed grizzled right-handers Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey to one-year deals last week, the Pirates were forced to eye the under-40 crowd. Left-hander Rich Hill, 36, is the top starter on the market, followed in no particular order by right-handers Jason Hammel, Andrew Cashner, Ivan Nova and Edinson Volquez — two former Pirates starters.
The agent for left-hander Derek Holland told the Tribune-Review last weekend the Pirates are “on our short list” of teams Holland is interested in. Holland, 30, has made just 35 starts over the past three seasons, sidelined twice by knee and shoulder injuries. He became a free agent after the Texas Rangers declined his $11 million option for 2017 and exercised a $1.5 million buyout.
Rookie of the year
Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager was a unanimous pick for the National League Rookie of the Year award. Seager, 22, batted .308 with 26 home runs and 40 doubles. He has already played in an All-Star Game and has 16 postseason games under his belt.
Seager is the 17th Dodgers rookie to win the award since 1947, and the third to do so unanimously, following Mike Piazza in 1993, and Raul Mondesi in 1994.
Detroit Tigers right-hander Michael Fulmer took the American League Rookie of the Year award. He went 11-7 with a 3.06 ERA in 159 innings and received 26 of 30 first-place votes.
Stock up
Third base prospect Eric Wood went 2 for 5 with a pair of two-run doubles for the Surprise Saguaros on Monday to push his OPS in the Arizona Fall League to .939. Wood, 23, leads the league with 20 RBIs and is third with a .351 batting average, chasing New York Yankees prospect Gleyber Torres’ sizzling .379 mark. Former pro scout Bernie Pleskoff, who writes for TodaysKnuckleball.com, called Wood “one of my top #AFL16 sleepers” and “one of the true under the radar guys here.”
Stock down
The Stetson Allie story probably won’t end in Pittsburgh. Allie, 25, signed a minor league deal Monday with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The former pitcher was drafted by the Pirates in the second round in 2010, then moved to first base and the outfield because of command problems. He flashed power at the plate, hitting between 16 and 21 home runs each of the past four years, but never eclipsed a .247 batting average in three seasons at Class AA Altoona.
Stephen J. Nesbitt: snesbitt@post-gazette.com and Twitter @stephenjnesbitt.
First Published: November 15, 2016, 5:00 a.m.