NEW YORK - Major League Baseball and the players' association have determined qualifying offers for eligible free agents will be $14.1 million, a raise of $800,000 from last year.
Baseball's labor contract sets the price at the average of the 125 highest contracts by average annual value.
A club has until 4 p.m. Central time on the fifth day following the World Series to make a qualifying offer and a player has until 4 p.m. CST on the seventh day after the World Series to accept it.
If a player rejects a qualifying offer and signs a major- league contract with another club before the June amateur draft, his former team would receive a draft pick as compensation at the end of the first round. The club signing that player loses its first-round pick in the following amateur draft, unless that pick is among the top 10, in which case the club signing that player loses its next-highest pick.