Thirteen players have received a qualifying offer this year, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The list is as follows:
- Kyle Tucker, OF, Cubs
- Kyle Schwarber, OF/DH, Phillies
- Bo Bichette, SS/2B, Blue Jays
- Framber Valdez, LHP, Astros
- Dylan Cease, RHP, Padres
- Ranger Suarez, LHP, Phillies
- Edwin Diaz, RHP, Mets
- Zac Gallen, RHP, D-backs
- Shota Imanaga, LHP, Cubs
- Michael King, RHP, Padres
- Trent Grisham, OF, Yankees
- Gleyber Torres, 2B, Tigers
- Brandon Woodruff, RHP, Brewers
This year’s QO is valued at $22.025MM. All 13 players will have until Nov. 18 to decide whether to accept that one-year offer or decline and become a free agent. They can spend that time gauging the open market to determine interest in their services. If a player accepts the QO, he’ll be treated as a free agent signing and thus will be ineligible to be traded without his consent until June 15 of next year. If he declines, any team that signs him will be subject to draft and/or international bonus forfeitures, depending on its revenue-sharing and luxury tax status.
The bulk of the list was generally expected. Every recipient other than Torres and Imanaga (who wasn’t a free agent at the time) was pegged as likely or a no-doubter to receive the QO on MLBTR’s annual lists of qualifying offer previews for position players and for pitchers. Torres was viewed as something of a long shot, at least on the MLBTR staff. He’s coming off a nice season in Detroit but struggled through a poor finish — perhaps in part due to injury — and wasn’t hit with a QO last offseason when coming off a comparable year at the plate in the Bronx.
More to come.