From Chronicle Staff Writer Susan Slusser

The A’s have no big-league ready at shortstop for next season – but even so the team doesn’t appear likely to offer free agent Jed Lowrie a qualifying offer in order to stay for one year.

The qualifying offer amount – the same for all first-time free agents – is set at at $15.3 million this year and the offer must be made by 5 p.m. tomorrow. If a player accepts the offer, he stays another season with his club. If he declines it and goes elsewhere, his former team gets compensation in the June draft, something that has kept several players who turned down qualifying offers off the shelf well into the following season, with teams unwilling to lose draft picks.

Lowrie, 30, is considered among the better offensive shortstops in baseball, but his numbers dipped in 2014: He hit .249 with six homers and 50 RBIs after hitting .290 with 15 homers and 75 RBIs the previous year. A fractured right index finger affected him in the final two months of the season, necessitating a DL stint at one point.

His defensive work improved during the regular season; he went from negative numbers in some zone ratings in 2013 to well in the positives in 2014. His range is limited, though, which was noted during the A’s wild-card loss to Kansas City, and many scouts believe he’d be better at second base – a position Lowrie has said he would consider when talking to teams this winter. He was reluctant to bounce between the two spots when he first came to Oakland in 2013, but he has said all along that that’s only because he believes he would be at his best defensively focused on one spot – either one, just not both.

The former Stanford player was forthright after the season that the amount of a contract will matter to him, along with many other factors including finding the right fit for himself and his family. There won’t be much, if any, “hometown discount” for the A’s, and recently, free-agent middle infielder (non-Robinson-Cano category) have been getting four-year deals worth $30-40 million. Oakland isn’t expected to consider a commitment that long or that expensive, and if someone such as Stephen Drew could be added (again) for a year or two, max, that might be the way the team turns. There aren’t many other options out there, and Asdrubal Cabrera is likely to get at least as much Lowrie will, if not more.

Lowrie’s representatives have been in touch with the A’s and they will continue to be throughout the winter, while of course exploring all other possible options. If Lowrie gets three years or more elsewhere, I can’t imagine the A’s having any shot to keep him.

The A’s traded their own top candidate to replace Lowrie, Addison Russell, to the Cubs for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel in July. The organization is high on Daniel Robertson, who has had a nice Arizona Fall League, but Robertson spent last season at Class-A Stockton and is at least a year away from playing in the big leagues.

Oakland might have to look for middle-infield help via trades this winter. The Cubs have a stockpile of young shortstops after acquiring Russell, and frequent A’s trading partner Arizona also has a surplus, including Cliff Pennington, who was a favorite of Oakland’s coaching staff.

The A’s probably will lose all seven of their free agents: Lowrie, left-hander Jon Lester (who will get a bundle as one of the top two free-agent starters, likely with the Cubs), right-hander Jason Hammel, reliever Luke Gregerson, outfielder Jonny Gomes, infielder Alberto Callaspo and catcher Geovany Soto.

Hammel was terrific after an early funk with the team and the A’s would certainly bring him back if the terms were reasonable, and Soto was a nice fit, too, after injuries to Stephen Vogt and John Jaso. With Vogt expected to be fully healthy for spring training, though, the team’s catching needs are probably covered, even with Jaso potentially limited to DH and first-base duty from here on after repeat concussions.