I'm just curious what some people would consider to be a fair contract for Etan this offseason. He is the only FA of note on our team, so he's the only internal issue we really need to take care of this summer. Obviously the drafts will have an effect on this, so assume what you want on who we'll gain in the rookie draft and lose in the expansion draft.
Alternatively, do we even bring him back? His qualifying offer will be for about $3 million dollars, and if we knock out our other FAs and assume that we lose some more salary in the expansion draft, we could be under the cap by enough to possibly pursue some mid-level FAs. Is that a better option than keeping Etan? I'm sure he will get plenty of interest around the league as a down and dirty banging center, so we can't dawdle with him.
Yeah, we definitely make the qualifying offer. I'm not sure if we'd match any offer we'd get for him, but I'd be willing to mach most I think he'll get (in the $3-5M range).