Colby Rasmus: A look at WHY he accepted the Astros qualifying offer

Outfielder Colby Rasmus agreed to accept Houston’s $15.8 million qualifying offer ahead of Friday’s deadline, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

Wieters, 29, is just the second player to ever accept a qualifying offer, which compensates a team with a draft pick if a a free agent decides to sign elsewhere.

Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters has accepted the club’s qualifying offer, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

As discussed earlier today, Yovani Gallardo of the Rangers declined the qualifying offer, and the Rangers will get a compensatory supplemental first round pick, as a result.

And Wieters’ decision came as somewhat of a surprise, especially since none of the 34 qualifying offers heading into this season were accepted, and the fact that his agent, Scott Boras, typically prefers his players to test the free-agent market. Beginning in 2012, Type A and Type B free agent designations were eliminated and replaced with qualifying offers. 238 with a career-high 25 home runs and 61 RBIs in his first season with the Astros. Not a bad chunk of change, but certainly not the big bucks that a few players are going on bet in baseball’s rich free-agent market. Dodgers starting pitcher Brett Anderson has done the same, meaning like the aforementioned Rasmus and Wieters, he will earn $15.8 million for the 2016 season. This year, 20 total offers have been made. He had seven homers over 27 at-bats in his last nine games, including four in six postseason games. Hinch and Luhnow. The outfielder has become a Houston icon with his shirtless-goggles wearing celebration pictures following making the playoffs and beating the Yankees in the Wild Card game. Luhnow made an expensive bet that Rasmus would not sign a one year deal. They both turned down a sizable qualifying offer thinking that they could get a muli-year deal somewhere. The three-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove victor was easily the best catcher on the market and could have seemingly landed a sizable contract, despite the elbow troubles and Tommy John surgery that cost him parts of the 2014 and 2015 seasons.