NEW YORK -- The qualifying offers are in. Based on recent history, few if any big leaguers will accept.
Second baseman Daniel Murphy and outfielder Colby Rasmus were among a record 20 free agents who received $15.8 million qualifying offers before Friday's deadline.
With teams sensing that starting pitching will be prized, Jeff Samardzija (Chicago White Sox), Marco Estrada (Toronto), Yovani Gallardo (Texas), Ian Kennedy (San Diego), Wei-Yin Chen (Baltimore), Hisashi Iwakuma (Seattle) and Brett Anderson (Los Angeles Dodgers) also received offers.
Players have until Nov. 13 to accept. In the three previous offseasons of the current collective bargaining agreement, none of the 34 qualifying offers was taken as free agents sought contracts with longer terms.