The Yankees, Free Agency, & Qualifying Offers

The New York Yankees have a much clearer look at the free agent market now that the qualifying offers have been handed down to free agents yesterday. Now the Yankees can look at their potential free agent targets and see if the cost outweighs the benefits of signing these free agents. Here we will take a look at the high spots of the qualifying offers and how they affect the Yankees.

Carlos Beltran is widely believed to be the Yankees starting right fielder in 2014 and the St. Louis Cardinals extended a qualifying offer to him yesterday. For the Yankees to sign Beltran they would have to give up somewhere in the market of $30,000,000 plus the 18th overall pick in the MLB First Year Player's Draft.

The Atlanta Braves also extended their catcher Brian McCann a qualifying offer, which is bad news for the Yankees. New York is linked to the 30 year old catcher and he may not be worth losing that 18th overall pick.

The Kansas City Royals extended a qualifying offer to Ervin Santana today which he will surely decline. With the Yankees linked to about every starting pitcher this is worth mentioning.

Ubaldo Jimenez opted out of his contract and was extended a qualifying offer as well. He may end up accepting it and getting a raise but I think he will search for a multi-year deal after a strong second half in 2013.

The Boston Red Sox did not offer Jarrod Saltalamacchia a qualifying offer so the Yankees may make a run at him as a catcher after a strong productive offense year for the World Series champions. The Sox did give offers to Mike Napoli, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Stephen Drew though and neither seem worth the contract and the loss of the draft pick in my eyes.

The Detroit Tigers did not make any qualifying offers so if the Yankees are seriously interested in Jhonny Peralta, Omar Infante, Joaquin Benoit, etc they will not have to lose their first round pick to acquire any of them.

Joe Nathan may be an option for the Yankees as a closer after opting out of his contract with the Texas Rangers and was not extended a qualifying offer. We could sign him to a deal and not lose our first round pick although he would probably command a two or three year deal which makes me cautious.

Josh Johnson did not receive a qualifying offer from the Toronto Blue Jays as expected so the Yankees may take a high risk high reward kind of waiver on the right hander. He screams of AJ Burnett to me, both when he is off and when he is on, and would not mind him whatsoever if he is healthy. Well also if he is counted on as a 5th starter type and not a front line starter of course.

Finally the Seattle Mariners extended a qualifying offer to Kendrys Morales. Morales may be in the discussion for the Yankees DH position and as a back up for Mark Teixeira but probably not now with the cost of a draft pick looming.