Kendrys Morales has declined the Mariners’ qualifying offer, according to cbsssports.com baseball reporter Jon Heyman Tuesday. That means that that the designated hitter/first baseman is likely headed to free agency, but does not preclude the Mariners and Morales from reaching a multi-year deal after he surveys the market.
It does mean that Morales, 30, has turned down a one-year deal worth about $13.8 million, which by baseball rules is a qualifying offer equal to the average of the 125 highest salaries in MLB in 2013. Another team outbidding the qualifying offer to sign Morales would owe draft-pick compensation to Seattle.
Declining the offer means Morales and his agent, Scott Boras, are betting there is a multi-year deal in the market for a player who had 23 homers, 80 RBIs and a slash line of .277/.336/.449.
But Morales demonstrated this season that he is probably only an emergency first baseman at best, meaning he’s likely to stay in the American League as a DH. He made $5.25 million in 2013 on a one-year deal after coming to Seattle in a trade with the Anaheim Angels for starting pitcher Jason Vargas.
The Mariners have indicated interest in keeping him, given that they have rarely attracted free-agent hitters in their prime, partly because of the pitcher-friendly park, partly because of Seattle’s geographic isolation and partly because of the Mariners’ propensity to lose. The bad image made worse by a terrible September concluded by manager Eric Wedge walking away, saying he wouldn’t have accepted a five-year deal the way the Mariners were operating the team.
Morales’s best year was 2009 when he hit .306 with 34 home runs and 108 RBI.
12 Comments
A consistent DH is hard to find. Especially one who hit well at Safeco Field. I’d love to see Kendrys return but the Mariners would probably have to over pay him to make that happen.
Yeah, but he’s a really consistent and effective veteran…doesn’t exactly fit the profile of the typical Mariner’s acquisition…(see Milton Bradley, etc.)
…Carl Everett…
Bucky Jacobsen.
But you can get a lot of DHs for $14M. Not sure Morales is going to get a multi-year deal from a team that knows he can’t play in the field. No roster flexibility.
But one who can hit in Safeco? I don’t care if the fences were moved in. It’s still a pitchers park.
Every player with leverage must be overpaid to play for the Mariners.
13.8 Million!!!!!! Nah I dont want your money it stinks like rotton salmon, just like your rotton front office and ownership. Been there done that. NO THANKS! Id rather go and play for free for a real baseball team. I already have played pony league. I also paid my dues playing in the minors (which is all this team is a single A minor beer league team). I am a man now and need to feel what it is like to play for a championship. Ever since i was a young boy i wanted to play in a world series. Sorry Seattle fans its not you. Its the reaking rotting flesh i smell everytime i walk into safeco field. I am over 30 now and cant play long enough for you to get your …. together. Since I will take a life time for these morons to turn it around. CYA SEATTLE, WOULDNT WANT TO BE YA!
Um . . . what if he comes back for two years, $20M? The fish is not so rotton (I like that spelling).
I dont know Art. Do you think that is a possibility? Would you take a mediocre, one pebble away from another catastrophic injury player on a two yr deal? Then again nobody wants to play for this debacle of a franchise. I guess beggars cant be choosers. I believe that ankle will always be weak and is one turn away from a career ending injury. Not to mention I thought he was only so so this year surely not a 10 million a year player. I understand that is the going price.
if i were in charge, i’d say bye bye kendrys, hello platooning. see As, Oakland.
He probably wants to go to a winner…who would blame him!