Baltimore made one-year, $15.8 million qualifying offers to three departing free agents and catcher Matt Wieters accepted, but first baseman Chris Davis and left-hander Wei-Yin Chen have declined.
That means Davis and Chen are both outright free agents and if they sign elsewhere the Orioles will receive a draft pick as compensation.
Davis’ projected market varies wildly depending on who you listen to--Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com predicted he’ll get $182 million, which seems insane to me--but he figures to have enough interested suitors that forfeiting a draft pick to sign him won’t scare anyone off.
Chen could see his market somewhat limited by the attached draft pick compensation, although as a 30-year-old lefty with a 3.44 ERA in 377 innings during the past two seasons he shouldn’t have trouble securing a sizable multi-year deal.
