Friday BP: The Qualifying Offer is set

Hello and happy Friday.

On Thursday, it was reported that the MLB Qualifying Offer for the upcoming offseason is $18.9 million. We’ve known for a while that the San Francisco Giants were unlikely to use the Qualifying Offer this year, but seeing the number on paper definitely confirms that. That’s a whole lot of cheddar, and I don’t think the Giants will be interested in giving that to Kevin Gausman or Drew Smyly, as good as they were this year.

As a refresher, the Qualifying Offer is a one-year deal at a price that is the average of the 125 highest contracts in the league. Teams can extend this contract to any of their free agents and, if the player rejects it, the team will receive a compensatory draft pick from whichever team signs that player.

The Giants extended Qualifying Offers to both Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith a year ago and, as a result, were able to draft Nick Swiney and Jimmy Glowenke with the compensatory selections received from the Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves.

Did Barry Bonds hit a home run today?

He didn’t.

Old, random MCC article for you to read

Justin Maxwell added to 40-man roster; Gary Brown designated for assignment (March 31, 2015 — Grant Brisbee)

Giants links

• Alex Pavlovic offers up 10 things you might not have known about the Giants season (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• John Shea on why the Giants should be interested in George Springer (SF Chronicle)
• Kerry Crowley on why the A’s Ramon Laureano reminded Bay Area fans of Hunter Pence (Mercury News)
• Alex Pavlovic on Farhan Zaidi’s reason for not calling up Reyes Moronta (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• Mark W. Sanchez on why the Giants are unlikely to use the Qualifying Offer (KNBR)

How many days until Opening Day?

There are 174 days until Opening Day.

I hope you all have a tremendous day.