The deadline for Francisco Liriano to accept the Pirates’ $15.3 million qualifying offer is today. The lefty hasn’t made a decision yet, but Jon Heyman tweeted this morning that he’s likely to decline the offer.
Heyman’s tweet seems to indicate a little surprise that Liriano will turn down the offer, but I’m not really sure there was much of a chance that he was going to pick it up. It wasn’t quite as obvious a choice for him as it was for Russell Martin given what happened with Ubaldo Jiminez last winter, but Liriano’s at a point in his career where he is what he is and he’s not getting any younger. The sooner he signs a multi-year deal that guarantees him a large chunk of money, the better for him. Out of all of the players that were made a qualifying offer this year, Liriano might have been one of the most likely to accept, but that still didn’t make him likely to accept, if that makes sense.
Anyway, I’d read the Pirates decision to make Liriano a qualifying offer a little differently than their decision to make Martin one. Martin’s offer is clearly an insurance policy; no one is going to be scared away by the attached draft pick. Liriano’s offer limits his market, because I’m not really certain how many teams would be willing to sacrifice their first round pick for a player that’s pretty far removed from being a slam dunk ace, even if he’s probably going to give whoever signs him 160 solid innings a year.
In any case, I wouldn’t read his decision to decline the offer (assuming that is what happens) as necessarily the end of his Pirate career. The Pirates need innings this winter, they know Liriano, and they know Liriano fits their team well. My preference would be for a starter more reliable/durable than Liriano, though we’ll obviously have to wait and see what the free agent market looks like. In any case, Liriano declining the offer should give them a choice between Liriano and someone else, which is a good position for the team to be in.
Image: Simon Cunningham, Flickr/LendingMemo.com
