Agent: Qualifying offer had dramatic impact on Kendrick deal

The agent for Howie Kendrick believes his client's earning potential was handicapped this winter due to the league's current qualifying offer system.

Kendrick declined the Los Angeles Dodgers' initial one-year, $15.8-million qualifying offer in November in order to try to find a more lucrative deal through free agency. The market was quiet, however, as interested suitors weren't willing to part with the draft-pick compensation required to sign him.

"No question the current system had a dramatic impact on Howie Kendrick because he didn't have the level of star power that some of the other qualifying offer players had," Kendrick's agent Larry Reynolds told MLB Network Radio. "So when a team had to make a determination of whether to offer a contract to Howie, they opted to not do so and keep their draft compensation."

The Arizona Diamondbacks reportedly had interest in signing Kendrick last month, but general manager Dave Stewart publicly acknowledged that the team wasn't willing to surrender a draft pick despite a need. They'd end up trading for Jean Segura from the Milwaukee Brewers instead.

Several others players have been affected by having draft-pick compensation, as Dexter Fowler and Yovani Gallardo remain on the market just two weeks before spring training opens.

For the first time this winter, two players accepted the qualifying offer (Colby Rasmus and Matt Wieters) and Reynolds said that he and Kendrick debated doing the same before testing the market.

"In Howie's case it really came down to his desire to say, 'Hey look, I worked really hard to be a major league free agent and I need to test the market,' and I agreed with him though it wasn't an easy one."

Kendrick eventually agreed to a two-year, $20-million deal last week to return to the Dodgers.