Originally posted by YourPalChrisMal
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But I disagree that it's similar to the franchise tag, or even the transition tag in the NFL. For the NFL players who get tagged, it's at the beginning of the process and they remain under contract, and if a team wants to sign a transitioned tagged player (they can't sign a franchised player), they have to give up two number one picks. But the player can't lose, because he's already under a guaranteed contract to whatever the transition tag amount is for that season.
But under the QO system, there's no guarantees -- either the player accepts the offer or he doesn't and plays the market. And for some it's a no-brainer to pass, but for the middle tier of FAs, it's become quite the gamble because teams don't want to part with a 1st rounder for a short-term asset.
In the NFL, the teams have the right of first refusal. In MLB, the players have the right of first refusal, and a few agents have misjudged it to the players disadvantage.
I cannot imagine the pain of leaving nearly 100 MILLION DOLLARS on the table. Wow. I mean, sure, $8M is a ton of money - more than I'll earn in my entire lifetime. But holy cow this backfired on Desmond in the most horrific of ways. If he doesn't dramatically improve from last year, he's not going to see any sort of epic contract next year either. He's already on the wrong side of 30 and trending steeply down.
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