Rather than accept or decline the one-year, $15.8 million qualifying offer before today’s deadline right-hander Marco Estrada and the Blue Jays have agreed to a two-year, $26 million contract.
Estrada could have turned down the qualifying offer in search of a longer, bigger deal on the open market, but he risked potentially having to settle for less money if teams were scared off by the draft pick compensation attached to signing him.
And he could have accepted the qualifying offer and returned to Toronto for $15.8 million next season, but instead he’ll get an extra $10.2 million for a second year. It’s more or less the best of both worlds for a 32-year-old with a 3.95 lifetime ERA coming off a career-year.
