(New York) Pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani is one of seven Major League Baseball players who received a one-year, $20.325 million qualifying offer on Monday as the free agent market opened to 168 players.
Most likely, these seven players are expected to refuse the offers by the deadline of November 14th, in order to accept multi-year contracts on the market.
In addition to Ohtani, who the Los Angeles Angels are trying to retain, there are also outfielder Cody Bellinger (Chicago Cubs), pitchers Josh Hader, Blake Snell (San Diego Padres), Aaron Nola (Philadelphia Phillies) and Sonny Gray (Minnesota Twins). . Third baseman Matt Chapman (Toronto Blue Jays) also received qualifying offers.
By submitting a qualified offer, the value of which is equal to the average of the 125 most lucrative current contracts ranked by annual value, a team guarantees that it will receive one or two additional draft selections if the player joins another club.
In a sign that the market is weak this year, there are half as many qualified offers as last year. The opportunity to provide qualifying offers began in 2012 and 10 of 124 offers were accepted.
Ohtani is expected to headline the free agent market, which will also include starting pitchers Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery, as well as Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Among the 169 players who have become free agents, Colin Rea of the Milwaukee Brewers is the only one who signed a new contract during the five-day exclusive negotiation period between a player and his former team. He signed a one-year contract worth 4.5 million.
On the last day to exercise an option, the Atlanta Braves did the same for right-handed pitcher Charlie Morton, as did the Detroit Tigers with first baseman Mark Canha and the Blue Jays with pitcher Chad Green.
