The Cincinnati Reds are nowhere near the luxury threshold for 2017. The threshold is set at $195-million. The Reds are expected to have a salary cap number somewhere around $87-million in 2017 once the arbitration cases for Billy Hamilton, Tony Cingrani, Zack Cozart, and Blake Wood are accounted.
The qualifying offer system is changing to the detriment of the smaller teams. Now players can only have the qualifying offer applied to them once in their entire career. If a team has a player that already was a qualifying offer player, then they get no qualifying compensation.