Matt Wieters on accepting the qualifying offer and more

Todays' FanFest at the Convention Center attracted a crowd that eclipsed 11,500, according to a team official.

I'll be dispensing quotes over the next few days, but here's a portion of Matt Wieters' interview, which leaned hard on his decision to take the $15.8 million qualifying offer.

"If you asked me going into the offseason, I always hoped to be back and didn't know what the decision was going to be, and very grateful that I was able to make a decision seven days after the season and take a little bit of stress off the offseason," Wieters said.

"Fans have been great, a lot of welcome backs, which is funny. I wasn't a Baltimore Oriole for all of seven days and got a lot of welcome backs. I can't imagine the guys who go away for a year and then come back."

Wieters said he didn't feel any pressure from the players association while making his decision.

"No, because I think the whole thing the union is about is what's best for the player and I truly believed in my heart that the best thing for me this year was taking the qualifying offer," Wieters said.

"I don't know how it goes from here as far as what the qualifying offer will be next year, but it really just came down to what did I feel was the best decision for me and my family."

Illustrating again that it's a tight-knit group in the clubhouse, Wieters said he called catcher Caleb Joseph before taking the qualifying offer.

"I actually called him before and asked him if it was OK. I really did," Wieters said. "I called him because I wanted to let him know that me coming back doesn't mean I don't think he isn't a capable big league catcher every day. That's why I called him.

"I was like, 'I wanted to let you know that I'm really considering coming back. I want it to be OK with you.' But I also wanted to let him know that if I didn't come back, he was more than capable of catching 130-140 games in the big leagues."

Wieters' concerns were unfounded. Joseph made it clear after the final game that he wanted Wieters to stay, insisting that he'd be the happiest guy on the team.

"It made the decision a lot easier," Wieters said. "Just because we've grown closer and closer each year, and to see at the end of last year how distraught he was a little bit that it might be my last year there and to call him and how welcoming he was of me coming back, it makes it easier. That's the kind of clubhouse we have.

"We have a clubhouse where you want to please the guy next to you. And knowing that he was happy that I was coming back means a lot."

Wieters sees the dollars being piled onto other free agents - outfielder Jason Heyward is getting $184 million from the Cubs over eight seasons - but he isn't second-guessing his decision to take $15.8 million for 2016.

"I'm not getting paid too poorly for this year," he said, laughing. "It's a great game and the success of the game is why players get paid the way they do."

Wieters can hit the market next winter and go through the free-agent process, bringing the same questions that he fielded this year. He won't be able to escape them.

"We're always going to go through questions," he said. "I think that's what I learned a little bit with this offseason is we never really know what's going to be next year.

"In this game there's so much uncertainty. There's always a chance for a trade, there's always a chance for something else and it came down to what's wrong with being back in Baltimore where you've been for seven years? And once I got the idea out of my head where free agency is so great - and it is - at the same time, what was the best situation for me and my family? And we felt like we were getting moved back to Baltimore for this year."

And unlike this season, he's expected to break camp with the team and return to a normal schedule now that he's further removed from ligament-reconstructive surgery on his right elbow. He appeared in only 75 games. The workload figures to increase significantly.

"We'll worry about next offseason next offseason, but excited to be two years removed from surgery and be able to hopefully play," he said.

"You never know what will come throughout the season, but hopefully be able to play as many games as possible. It was nice to be back last year, but I missed getting out there and catching multiple days in a row and catching three, four, five days in a row.

"I think all the hurdles were passed last year in being able to play. And the one thing, I was excited to be able to go through a normal offseason and be able to get through a normal workout routine, so it's been nice to not have to do rehab three or four days a week. It's now just a matter of listening to what your body says over the course of the year. I'm excited to see how it's going to feel and how it's going to respond."

Wieters saw Chris Davis last week, but he can't offer up a prediction on whether the first baseman re-signs with the Orioles. And, yes, he was asked about it.

"He seemed good," Wieters said. "As players, we selfishly want him back, but at the same time we want him to have what's best for his family and set him up well."