Qualifying Offers to Nap, Ells & Drew

The Red Sox made qualifying offers to Mike Napoli, Jacoby Ellsbury & Stephen Drew. Each player has 1 week to accept or decline their 1-year deal for $14 million. If any of the 3 decline, the Sox will receive a compensation pick from whichever team they go to. It's highly unlikely that any of these 3 players will not look for extended deals on the open marketplace. As I stated in a previous post, it appears that Mike Napoli is a high priority for Ben Cherington to re-sign. Ells & Drew will no doubt get multi-year deals elsewhere. They have shown that they can play in high-stress playoff games, but both have a history of injuries which could keep the number of years offered down by other teams. A glaring exception was the fact that no qualifying offer was made to Saltie. Maybe another team could turn him into a first baseman for his bat - like Napoli. You never know. This off-season will be quite interesting. I'm still gloating over the championship, so I go with "in Ben we trust."