The 4pm CT deadline has passed for free agents to accept or reject qualifying offers, and seven of the 10 players issued offers have officially turned them down. An eighth free agent, Will Smith, rejected the Giants’ qualifying offer and left the free agent market even before the deadline passed, signing a three-year, $40MM deal with the Braves. Jake Odorizzi of the Twins and Jose Abreu of the White Sox each accepted their team’s qualifying offers, and will now earn $17.8MM for the 2020 season.
Here are the seven players who rejected their former team’s one-year, $17.8MM qualifying offer….
- Madison Bumgarner (Giants)
- Gerrit Cole (Astros)
- Josh Donaldson (Braves)
- Marcell Ozuna (Cardinals)
- Anthony Rendon (Nationals)
- Stephen Strasburg (Nationals)
- Zack Wheeler (Mets)
There aren’t any surprises in that list, as there wasn’t doubt that Bumgarner, Cole, Donaldson, Rendon, Strasburg, and Wheeler would forego the one-year offer in search of a much richer, multi-year commitment. There was perhaps a bit more uncertainty surrounding Ozuna and Smith, given that Ozuna was coming off a pair of good but unspectacular years in St. Louis and Smith could perhaps have been wary of how the QO would impact his market, given what happened to another closer in Craig Kimbrel last winter.
If anything, the only real surprise occurred on the acceptance side, as Odorizzi was seen as a candidate to receive a multi-year offer before he opted to remain in Minnesota in 2020. Abreu, on the other hand, was widely expected to remain with the White Sox in some fashion, either via the QO or perhaps a multi-year extension. It should be noted that Odorizzi and Abreu are still free to negotiate longer-term deals with their respective teams even after accepting the qualifying offer.
Teams that sign a QO-rejecting free agent will have to give up at least one draft pick and some amount of international bonus pool money as compensation. (Click here for the list of what each individual team would have to forfeit to sign a QO free agent). The Astros, Nationals, Giants, Mets, Cardinals, and Braves are each in the same tier of compensation pool, so if any of their QO free agents signs elsewhere, the six teams will receive a compensatory draft pick between Competitive Balance Round B and the third round of the 2020 draft, or roughly in the range of the 75th to 85th overall pick. Atlanta, for instance, probably didn’t mind giving up their third-highest selection in the 2020 draft to sign Smith since the Braves have another pick coming back to their if Donaldson leaves for another club.
A total of 90 players have been issued qualifying offers since the QO system was introduced during the 2012-13 offseason, and Odorizzi and Abreu become the seventh and eighth players to accept the one-year pact. Odorizzi and Abreu are now ineligible to receive a qualifying offer in any future trips into free agency, so both players won’t be tied to draft/international pool penalties if they hit the open market following the 2020 season.
MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand was the first to report that Donaldson turned down his QO, while ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan was the first to report on the other six names.
I too have rejected the QO.
you are a fool – I am taking the 17.8MM for sure
Yeah but he is a 5 tool MVP. He’s gonna cash in.
I should be wearing my glasses, realgone. That 5 looked like an S.
A 5-tool MVP or a 5WAR tool?
A stool mvp!
All fans are that in a way
I breathed out of my nose so hard on that one.
I think you’re going to get more upvotes, Wolf.
Good one, Stool. You get an upvote from me, too.
…10 minus 2 is 8 though?
Yeah, i was wondering if this was another kind of new math…
Smith signed before the deadline so he didn’t need to reject it.
but he would still have to reject it, a player can’t just sign before the deadline and mitigate the draft compensation.
please read the article for the math
And the math is wrong, they twice state 7 players and then say an eighth also. So yeah they get there eventually, but the headline is definitely wrong
The article literally says “An eighth free agent, Will Smith, rejected the Giants’ qualifying offer and left the free agent market even before the deadline passed, signing a three-year, $40MM deal with the Braves.”, so yes, he still rejected it, even if he signed with another team before the deadline to reject it happened. He should still count among the players who rejected the QO.
Ozuna is making a mistake.
I wouldn’t want him on my team. He doesn’t even bat left handed.
What team do you own?
This take is so old and overdone. To be condescending toward a fan who feels it’s his or her team because it’s the team they cheer for is about as childish as it gets. We fans feel “ownership” of our teams and it’s okay that we refer to them as our teams. It’s time to give up on this narrative. Move on to something else, please.
2nd and 3rd this….agreed sir
Every time I go to a Dodger game the announcer introduces them as “Your Los Angeles Dodgers”. As fans we pay for the game tickets, parking, concessions, memorabilia, stadium tours, auctions, raffles, clothing, and $20 beers, without the fans these teams cannot exist… These are OUR teams.
Cute
I think Ozuna can get a 2 year deal somewhere though.
He could get a 2 yr deal with the Cardinals, or even 3, if Ozuna would defer part of his annual salaries so the Cardinals can get rid of the Cecil, Fowler, Gregerson, Leake, Leone, and Carpenter dead money vanish in 2 years.
He wont get 18/mil annually but some team will dish out an ill-fated 4 year deal to him at about 15 or 16 per.
I agree. Slightly biased Cards fan here but I would accept the $17.8M and see if I can put up 2020 numbers worthy of 4/$75M. He’s going to take a pay cut …
On open market Ozuna at 28 years old will get a 5 year deal worth an average over 20 million per. His stats compare favorably to Harper and only 2 years older than when he hit the market. No he won’t get that deal, but he will get paid.
His stats really don’t compare favorably to Harper. His career wRC+ is 112…propped up by a high of 143 in 2017.
Harper has a career wRC+ of 138, propped up by a high of…197 in 2015.
Defensively, neither of them add much value (if any).
Ozuna is a fine ballplayer but he is not worth 5 yrs at 20 million+ per year.
Ozuna literally can’t throw so someone is going to be purchasing damaged goods. If he and his agent are smart they’d move quickly trying to secure a muti-year deal even if the AAV is 2-3 mil a year lower than expected.
He’s very underrated.
Yes he is.
He will get more than $18 million in total but won’t get near that as an AAV. Some team will give him 3/36-39 or 4/48-50.
Glad he’s leaving. Cardinals are solid in the OF even without him. Edman can play OF as well as IF, obviously, there’s room for O’Neill, etc.
Now, with the money freed up, are Mo/Girsch going looking for another starter? This presumes Wacha walks. His money plus Ozuna’s, that’s not Cole money, but it certainly is Bumgarner, Ryu or that level of starting pitcher money.
Yeah and the article lists 8 players that rejected it total so the headline is wrong due to that second paragraph.
I’m really shocked that ozuna rejected it
I’m also extremely shocked will smith rejected it and signed a contract right after.
Im not at all about Smith. He seemed like he wanted to go to a contender and have job security. He fits well in Atlanta.
Smith is from Georgia too, dude.
That certainly didn’t hurt his chances of signing with ATL either lol
… and the Giants trade Tony Watson to ATL for the relief trifecta.
Cole, don’t even pack. Just hand your condo keys over to some rando and Outie, bro!
That list is no surprise.
Wouldn’t that be 8 players rejected, If Smith had to reject his to sign with the Braves. By my count, that is 8
i think the point is the Smith decision was already posted, so they’re saying seven more players than previously reported have rejected.
that is very confusing
Not really. They reported Smith’s new contract before the deadline. This post was after the deadline, so “7” players rejected it at the deadline.
Nothing in the article specifies before or after the deadline. It just flat out says “7 reject the qualifying offer” and “7 out of 10 rejected their qualifying offers”. Both are false.
How many times are you going to say the same thing?
Says the guy who copied and pasted the same comment at least 3-dozen times on the Alex Anthopoulos article.
Math causes headaches. Just say no to math.
I wish the seven were all signed by Thanksgiving. This is going to be a brutal winter waiting for these signings.
I feel insulted as I have yet to receive my QO!
I have. I had some quick oatmeal!
Quaker Oats quick oatmeal? A QO QO.
The FA frenzy hasn’t even started yet and I’m already 0 for 2 in the contest!
@ raltongo . .. . …Abreu, Odorizzi, Smith and Wainright. . . . I’m 2 for 4, Wainright and Abreu came through for me so far
I think they gave us Wainwright as a freebie! 🙂
Nobody cares how any randos like you do in some stupid contest, raltongo and GothamGuy. It has no bearing on anything.
I’m 3 for 4. I had Smith going to the Red Sox!
Nobody cares. Nobody!
You care or you would not comment on it. You may be the only one besides those 3 guys that cares, but that is still someone.
Great I can stop holding my breath. I was afraid Ozuna was going to accept.
True, I’d rather spend $17M elsewhere, like a good 3B
So that’s that awful smell.
The more players accept the QO, the fewer times the QO will be offered, and that’s a good thing. This area of the CBA has gotten far too much attention from the MLBPA at the expense of far more important issues.
I disagree. Teams are much more willing to overpay a guy in their mind (even if you and everyone else doesn’t think it is they may) for 1year than take a risk and overpay him for 3,4,5,6 or 7 years.
I’m glad that Ozuna rejected the QO. He’s just a fair hitter but an absolutely BRUTAL outfielder.
I know he will sign for much less, but I wish the Yankees had tendered Gardner the QO and he had accepted.
Wheeler is from the Atlanta suburbs. I wonder if he would take a bit of a pay cut to come home.