Davis, Wieters, Chen get qualifying offers from Orioles

By foxsports
Published

BALTIMORE -- The Orioles have extended $15.8 million qualifying offers to first baseman Chris Davis, catcher Matt Wieters and left-hander Wei-Yin Chen.

Teams must make their departing players a qualifying offer in order to be eligible for draft pick compensation if a player signs a major-league contract elsewhere before the amateur draft in June.

Davis will almost certainly garner far more money from the free-agent market. The 29-year-old led the majors with 47 home runs in 2015 and drove in 117 runs in 160 games.

Wieters has spent his entire career with Baltimore. The 29-year-old hit .267 with eight homers in an injury-shortened season.

Chen went 11-8 with a 3.34 ERA in 31 starts this year.

Also on Friday, the Orioles selected the contract of left-hander Chris Jones from Triple-A Norfolk.