Kelsey Mitchell gets core qualifying offer after career-high season

With the expansion draft out of the way, the next order of business before the season begins is the WNBA free agency period. Beginning Monday, WNBA teams were allowed to extend qualifying offers to restricted free agents as well as designate core players. For the Indiana Fever, the core designation in free agency went to Kelsey Mitchell, as per WNBA insider Khristina Williams.

Kelsey Mitchell was set to hit unrestricted free agency after signing a one-year contract last offseason in anticipation of the new WNBA CBA. With the new CBA now in place, Mitchell stands to gain quite a bit financially with the core tag.

The Fever awarded themselves exclusive negotiating rights with Mitchell in free agency by giving her the core designation. The negotiations for a core tag begin at the new supermax as per the CBA which is expected to be around $1.5 million. Just for comparison, Mitchell signed a supermax extension with the Fever last season which paid her slightly less than $250,000.

Moving forward, Mitchell is considered a key player in the Fever’s hopes to contend for a championship as the backcourt partner alongside Caitlin Clark. She’s coming off a career year in which she was named to her third consecutive All-Star appearance while making her first All-WNBA First Team selection.

With the season-ending injury to Clark, Mitchell was instrumental in keeping the team competitive and securing a playoff berth. She averaged a career-high 20.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists with splits of 45.6 percent shooting from the field, 39.4 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 78.4 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

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