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The Texas Rangers took the final qualifying offer piece off of the board on Sunday. Ian Desmond signed a one-year deal with the Rangers for $8 million to play outfield.
The other 19 qualifying offer cases had already been settled by that time. Brett Anderson, Colby Rasmus, and Matt Wieters all accepted their $15.8 million, one-year deals. Marco Estrada and the Toronto Blue Jays settled on a two-year extension before the decision was required.
11 of the 20 players given qualifying offers rejected their offers and signed with another team. Other than Desmond, that list includes Justin Upton, Ian Kennedy, Jeff Samardzija, Wei-Yin Chen, Jordan Zimmermann, Yovani Gallardo, Daniel Murphy, Zack Greinke, John Lackey, and Jason Heyward.
The compensation round will, therefore, consist of 11 picks immediately following the first round. They are sorted -- like the rest of the first round -- in reverse order of the standings. That means that, immediately following the St. Louis Cardinals selection -- 23rd overall -- the compensation round will begin with two selections from the San Diego Padres. One for losing Upton and the other for losing Kennedy.
Other teams with two compensatory picks will be the Washington Nationals and the Cardinals. The Nationals will get selections 28 and 29 for losing Zimmermann and Desmond while the Cardinals will get selections 33 and 34 for losing Lackey and Heyward.
While losing Lackey and Heyward are definitely a blow, it seems a tad backwards that a 100-win team get compensation in order to keep them 'competitive.' The Cardinals will have three selections in the first round of the 2016 draft while the Philadelphia Phillies will have only one. Sure, the Cardinals selections will be much later, but it still represents an inequity that should be addressed.
The first competitive balance round -- which will cover picks 35-41 -- have also been set. The Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, and Pittsburgh Pirates are set to make those picks. That being said, these picks can be subject to change as competitive balance picks are allowed to be traded. The Braves will be making their selection because they acquired the pick from the Miami Marlins.
Furthermore, the fact that the Dodgers earned a pick in this round also represents a lack of fairness. With a payroll topping out at $291 million last season, the Dodgers hardly need help from the league to stay competitive. The pick is granted to the Dodgers because they were unable to sign their first-round selection -- Kyle Funkhouser -- last year.
The full list of picks from the first round to the fortieth round can be found here. Picks 1-41 can be found below.
1 | Philadelphia Phillies | |
---|---|---|
2 | Cincinnati Reds | |
3 | Atlanta Braves | |
4 | Colorado Rockies | |
5 | Milwaukee Brewers | |
6 | Oakland Athletics | |
7 | Miami Marlins | |
8 | San Diego Padres | |
9 | Detroit Tigers | |
10 | Chicago White Sox | |
11 | Seattle Mariners | |
12 | Boston Red Sox | |
13 | Tampa Bay Rays | |
14 | Cleveland Indians | |
15 | Minnesota Twins | |
16 | Los Angeles Angels | |
17 | Houston Astros | |
18 | New York Yankees | |
19 | New York Mets | |
20 | Los Angeles Dodgers | |
21 | Toronto Blue Jays | |
22 | Pittsburgh Pirates | |
23 | St. Louis Cardinals | |
24 | San Diego Padres (For Upton. The Tigers lose their third-round pick.) | |
25 | San Diego Padres (For Kennedy. The Royals lose their first-round pick.) | |
26 | Chicago White Sox (For Samardzija. The Giants lose their first-round pick.) | |
27 | Baltimore Orioles (For Chen. The Marlins lose their second-round pick.) | |
28 | Washington Nationals (For Zimmermann. The Tigers lose their second-round pick.) | |
29 | Washington Nationals (For Desmond. The Rangers lose their first-round pick.) | |
30 | Texas Rangers (For Gallardo. The Orioles lose their first-round pick.) | |
31 | New York Mets (For Murphy. The Nationals lose their first-round pick.) | |
32 | Los Angeles Dodgers (For Greinke. The Diamondbacks lose their first-round pick.) | |
33 | St. Louis Cardinals (For Lackey. The Cubs lose their first-round pick.) | |
34 | St. Louis Cardinals (For Heyward. The Cubs lose their second-round pick.) |
35 | Cincinnati Reds | |
---|---|---|
36 | Los Angeles Dodgers (For not signing Kyle Funkhouser) | |
37 | Oakland Athletics | |
38 | Colorado Rockies | |
39 | Arizona Diamondbacks | |
40 | Atlanta Braves (via trade with Marlins) | |
41 | Pittsburgh Pirates |