Dodgers News: LA Reveals Key Qualifying Offer Decisions with Top Free Agents

LA's offseason is in full swing!

The Dodgers announced today that they were not extending qualifying offers to both starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw and designated hitter J.D. Martinez. Both were somewhat expected at this point, but now they are official.

The qualifying offer is at $$20.35 million this season, and the Dodgers could likely get both back for less than that price.

Kershaw has flirted with retirement over the last few seasons, and he has signed one-year deals to preserve flexibility for himself. The Dodgers have essentially allowed him to dictate if he wants to return, and they will do the same again this offseason.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dodgers Nation (@dodgersnation)

They didn’t offer him the qualifying offer as a courtesy to Kershaw, so he has plenty of time to decide what he wants to do going forward. He has already said that he hopes to play at some point next season when he announced that he was having surgery to repair the shoulder injury that nagged him over the course of the second half of the season.

Not extending him the offer was almost a foregone conclusion at this point, but them not extending it to Martinez is a bit interesting. There was some thought that the Dodgers could extend the one-year offer to the veteran slugger, but if he had accepted it, it would have thrown some wrinkles into their plan to go after two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.

If the team were to lose out in their pursuit of Ohtani, Martinez would be a great backup option. They could likely get him back for cheaper than what the qualifying offer would have been, so this is a good move by the Dodgers.

The offseason is in full swing for LA, and moves are being made. Pretty soon we will start to see external free agents sign all over the league, and we are in for what seems like a fun offseason.