MLB Free Agency Opens As Eight Players Receive Qualifying Offers

MLB’s compressed offseason player market moved forward on Monday with the opening of free agency and tendering of eight qualifying offers. 

That group of qualifying offers, including ones for Yankees closer David Bednar and Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers, is down from the 13 players that received offers a year ago. A record four players in that group accepted, and the qualifying offer for the 2027 season is worth a league-record $23.15 million, higher than the 2026 salaries of all eight players in this year’s group. The qualifying offer gives the current club draft-pick protection if the player signs elsewhere. 

Player decisions on the qualifying offers are due Nov. 17, but free agency also formally started at 5 p.m. ET Monday, leaving just four weeks of activity before MLB shuts down the entire offseason market.

Club owners and the MLB Players Association are locked in a bitter labor fight, and a management lockout is expected when the current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1. 

MLB club owners are seeking several dramatic changes, including a hard salary cap and floor, significant restrictions on free agency, a retooled draft, and a 154-game regular season. The union vehemently opposes many of those potential measures, particularly the cap, and is looking to preserve the core of the current, market-based economic system. 

Amid that divide, the league recently detailed in a memo to club owners that essentially all player-related activity would stop as soon as a lockout begins, including a halt on player trades, signings, and contract negotiations. 

Additionally, all player images and videos would be removed from official league outlets such as the MLB website, and any contact between team staffers and players, even socially, would be severely restricted. Those practices duplicate what happened during the 2021-22 lockout. 

Following several contract option-related decisions on Monday, the total pool of MLB free agents reached 176 players. Topping that list is Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal, who could be in line for a record-setting deal at that position. 

Japanese Influx

Several Japanese and Korean players are adding to that pool of available players following a series of posting decisions in recent days. 

Players posted to MLB include Hanshin Tigers infielder Teruaki Sato, this year’s Triple Crown winner in Japan’s Central League, along with pitchers Kaima Taira of the Saitama Seibu Lions and Hiromi Itoh of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. Si-Hwan Roh, an infielder from South Korea’s Hanwha Eagles, is also now in the posting system. 

Japanese players have a 45-day posting period, while South Korean players have a 30-day period as a result of the posting agreement between MLB and the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). For the Japanese stars, though, the effective window is now just four weeks long, as no signings can happen after Dec. 1, when the transaction freeze is expected. For now, the 45-day posting period is not expected to be paused, as it was during the 2021–22 MLB lockout. 

For these players, the signing MLB club pays the player’s former club a posting fee that varies based on the contract’s guaranteed value. For a record-setting deal such as the $325 million pact signed nearly three years ago between the Dodgers and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the posting fee exceeded $50 million. 

Hall of Fame Vote 

The Baseball Hall of Fame, meanwhile, unveiled a stacked set of candidates on Monday for its Contemporary Baseball Era non-player ballot. 

The shrine’s Contemporary Baseball Era committee will consider four former executives and four managers, including Sandy Alderson, Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Joe Maddon, Lou Piniella, Brian Sabean, Ted Turner, and Bill White.

Turner, the late former owner of the Braves, helped usher in baseball’s cable television era with his WTBS television superstation. Alderson and Sabean built Bay Area dynasties with the A’s and Giants, respectively, and Bill White had a post-playing career that spanned broadcasting and a stint as National League president. Baker, Bochy, and Piniella are three of the five winningest managers not already in the Hall of Fame, while Maddon ranks 32nd in all-time managerial wins. 

The committee’s results will be unveiled on Dec. 6, with 75% support among the 16-person group required for induction. That panel elected Jeff Kent last year in a surprise vote. Members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will vote on players in January.