Qualifying Offers

Heading into the offseason the Red Sox had several free agents from this years roster but they decided to only extend qualifying offers to three players. The three players who received offers from the Red Sox were Mike Napoli, Stephen Drew and Jacoby Ellsbury. A qualifying offer means the player has the ability to sign a a one year contract worth $14.1 million. All three of the players who received offers from the Red Sox declined the offer and opted to become free agents. The player that is most likely to sign a long term deal with the Red Sox is Mike Napoli. He has already expressed interest in returning. Remember, last season Napoli signed a three year deal but it was changed to a one year deal due to health concerns. In regard to Stephen Drew, there is a 50/50 chance he returns to the Red Sox. He has stated that he would like to remain in Boston, but there are a lot of other teams who are vying for his services. Jacoby Ellsbury is the least likely to return next season for two main reasons. The first reason being that the Red Sox are reluctant to commit to a long term contract of six years or more. This is because of the disaster that the contract of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez caused the organization. The other reason is the Seattle Mariners are willing to pay that much money. The Mariners are an attractive team for Ellsbury because of the money and because he is from the Pacific Northwest.