Baltimore Orioles: Orioles extend qualifying offer to Mark Trumbo

Monday was the deadline for teams to offer qualifying offers to their free agent eligible players. The Baltimore Orioles eventually extended one to Mark Trumbo, who has until next Monday to accept or decline the offer.

The Baltimore Orioles had three free agents eligible for a qualifying offer: Pedro Alvarez, Matt Wieters and Mark Trumbo. After much deliberation, the Orioles eventually extended a qualifying offer to Mark Trumbo. However, the move confirms the Orioles are not going to offer a qualifying offer to Wieters.

Trumbo is likely to decline the qualifying offer and will have a draft pick compensation attached should he sign with a different team.

The Orioles didn’t offer a qualifying offer to Wieters due to their wariness he would accept the offer again. The Orioles extended a qualifying offer to Wieters last offseason and Wieters took the $15 Million one-year contract.

Wieters had a subpar season with the Orioles, hitting .243/.302/.409 but he did hit 17 home runs and threw out 35% of runners that attempted to steal. If the Orioles aren’t interested in signing Wieters, that would mean the Atlanta Braves would swoop in and try to steal the catcher. However, the Braves emerging as frontrunners don’t come as much of a surprise. Wieters attended Georgia Tech during college and lives in the Atlanta area during the offseason.

The Houston Astros along with the Washington Nationals are considered suitors for Wieters.

The Orioles have 10 players slated to hit the free market this season; Alvarez, Wieters, Trumbo, Michael Bourn, Tommy Hunter, Brian Duensing, Logan Ondrusek, Steve Pearce, Nolan Reimold, and Drew Stubbs.

Other News

— Despite Buck Showalter’s gaffe of not using Zach Britton during the 2016 American League WIld Card game, the BBWAA was willing to look past that and elected him as a finalist for the American League Manager of the Year award. His competition is Jeff Banister of the Texas Rangers and Terry Francona of the Cleveland Indians. The winner of the award will be announced on November 15, which can be viewed on MLB Network.

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— Major League Baseball also announced the candidates for the American League Cy Young Award. A surprising omission is Britton, who had a 0.54 ERA in 67 appearances in 2016. Instead Indians starter Corey Kluber, Boston Red Sox starter Rick Porcello and Detroit Tigers starter Justin Verlander were finalists for the award.

Showalter was rather vocal about Britton not being considered for the Cy Young, and said the following to the media.

"“It’s shocking. That’s a real poor reflection on the people who are evaluating him. God bless the three guys in front of him. They were doing it every fifth day and he’s doing it every day. I’m not so sure any of those guys could do what Zach does.“This guy had maybe the best year in the history of relief pitching. He should have finished in the top three in MVP, OK? He should. There’s nobody in baseball who’s more valuable to their team than Zach Britton is to the Orioles.”"

Britton took a different approach regarding his snub.

"Whether I was a finalist or not, it wasn’t going to change the way I feel about the season I had. I accomplished a lot of goals I set for myself on a personal level. I figured I wasn’t the safe choice and it was going to be an uphill battle. Obviously, I hope a reliever in the future has a better season than I had and gets recognized for it.”"

Next: Orioles announce Top 10 prospects

The AL Cy Young Award will be unveiled on November 16th, which could be watched on MLB Network.