The amount of the qualifying offer, which increased by $800,000 this year, is set by baseball's collective bargaining agreement as the average of the 125 highest contracts.
Among the nine players who received the offers last year, the only ones to stay with their teams were Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz, Kuroda and Washington first baseman Adam LaRoche.
If a new club signs a player who received a qualifying offer, that team gives up a high draft pick. The top 10 overall selections in the draft cannot be forfeited, and a team signing multiple qualified players would lose a corresponding amount of selections.
Cruz served a 50-game suspension this year; he was among 14 players disciplined by Major League Baseball after its investigation of the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic. In 108 games before his suspension in August, Cruz hit .269 with 27 homers and 76 RBIs. He returned for the AL wild-card tiebreaker and went 0 for 4.
Among those who did not receive offers were pitchers Bronson Arroyo of Cincinnati, Matt Garza of Texas, Roy Halladay of Philadelphia, Tim Hudson of Atlanta, Josh Johnson of Toronto and Fernando Rodney of Tampa Bay.
