MLB Free Agents 2016: List of Players Who Accepted Qualifying Offers

For the first time in the four-year history of Major League Baseball's qualifying-offer system, a player has accepted his team's offer, per the Associated Press (via Fox Sports).

In fact, three players accepted one-year, $15.8 million offers to remain with their original clubs this year. Houston Astros outfielder Colby Rasmus was the first player to accept the deal, per the AP.

Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters and Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Brett Anderson also accepted the offers.

Here is a list of the 20 players who received offers and their statuses:

Player	Position	Team	Decision
Brett Anderson	SP	Los Angeles Dodgers	Accepted
Wei-Yin Chen	SP	Baltimore Orioles	Declined
Chris Davis	1B	Baltimore Orioles	Declined
Ian Desmond	SS	Washington Nationals	Declined
Marco Estrada	SP	Toronto Blue Jays	Re-signed with new deal
Dexter Fowler	OF	Chicago Cubs	Declined
Yovani Gallardo	SP	Texas Rangers	Declined
Alex Gordon	OF	Kansas City Royals	Declined
Zack Greinke	SP	Los Angeles Dodgers	Declined
Jason Heyward	OF	St. Louis Cardinals	Declined
Hisashi Iwakuma	SP	Seattle Mariners	Declined
Howie Kendrick	2B	Los Angeles Dodgers	Declined
Ian Kennedy	SP	San Diego Padres	Declined
John Lackey	SP	St. Louis Cardinals	Declined
Daniel Murphy	2B/3B	New York Mets	Declined
Colby Rasmus	OF	Houston Astros	Accepted
Jeff Samardzija	SP	Chicago White Sox	Declined
Justin Upton	OF	San Diego Padres	Declined
Matt Wieters	C	Baltimore Orioles	Accepted
Jordan Zimmermann	SP	Washington Nationals	Declined

Instead of taking the qualifying offer, Marco Estrada opted to re-sign with the Toronto Blue Jays for $26 million over two years, ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick confirmed.

The qualifying-offer system was put into place in 2012. If a player declines the offer and signs with another team before the June amateur draft, the team that lost the player receives a compensation pick, and the team that signed the free agent loses a draft pick, per the AP.

Qualifying offers are calculated by taking the average of the top 125 MLB contracts. Per the AP, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred defended the system:

"

The fact that players say no, go out into the market and get contracts even though the signing club is giving up a draft choice kind of says to me we got it right. So I don't think that you need somebody to accept. I think that so far we have successfully identified a group of players who were significant losses for the teams they were leaving and were high enough quality that they could bear the burden of draft-choice compensation in the market and still get a good contract.

"

Let's take a look at the three players who made history.

Rasmus Happy to Be Back in Houston

The 29-year-old Rasmus hit a career-high 25 home runs for the Astros in 2015, helping lead the team to the American League Division Series before it fell to the Kansas City Royals.

Rasmus will return to Houston looking for more, per the team's Twitter account:

The outfielder hit only .238 in 2015 but set a major league record by recording an extra-base hit in each of his first six postseason games, per Jane Lee of MLB.com.

Despite his torrid postseason, he isn't a spring chicken, and the market was probably not going to be great for an outfielder with a .314 on-base percentage who is good for more than one strikeout per game.

He fits well in Houston, and it made sense for him to remain with the Astros.

Wieters Staying Home

Wieters, who hit .267 with eight home runs and 25 RBI in 75 games in 2015, said Baltimore is the only place where he wants to play, per Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. “When it came down to it, there’s no other organization or city from my experience in the major leagues where I’d rather play, especially on a one-year deal, than Baltimore,” Wieters said.

The 29-year-old catcher has played in only 101 games over the past two seasons because of injuries, and accepting the second-highest annual salary in Orioles history was a no-brainer.

He is one of the better overall catchers in the game, especially at the plate, but most likely would not have gotten this kind of offer coming off two injury-riddled seasons.

If he can get healthy and have a strong season, the market should be good for him in 2016.

Anderson Remaining with Dodgers

After winning 10 games in his first year for the Dodgers, Brett Anderson accepted his qualifying offer and shared the good news on Twitter:

Anderson is another player who has dealt with injuries in his career. After taking the mound 30 times during his rookie season in 2009, he never started more than 19 games in a season until 2015.

Although he put in 180.1 innings and had a decent 3.69 ERA, he may have felt the nearly $16 million from the Dodgers would be his best offer.

Jeff Todd of MLBTradeRumors.com feels a second straight healthy year could set up Anderson for the long term:

"

In addition to ensuring that he’ll add a hefty, $15.8M salary to his bank account, the move allows Anderson another opportunity to prove his health and effectiveness. He’ll still be plenty young next year, when the market features nothing close to this season’s mass of top-end talent and overall depth. With a big 2016, then, Anderson could be in prime position to cash in.

"

If he can pitch effectively in 2016, he'll be able to test the market when he turns 28 next year and likely receive some nice offers.

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