The opt-out and qualifying offer deadlines passed on Tuesday, officially setting the free-agent market.
José Abreu remains a part of it, but the White Sox made sure to attach some strings by extending him the $17.8 million qualifying offer.
Part of me thought the qualifying offer was a natural conclusion to the Abreu/White Sox negotiations, although I stopped short of predicting it. I can't imagine him doing better than $17.8 million for an average annual value, but I can imagine him doing better than one year. The White Sox give him a small raise after a year where he won the RBI title, they can reevaluate the position after one more year of Andrew Vaughn, and Abreu never has to worry about the qualifying offer again.
Or maybe the White Sox are working with Abreu on a multi-year deal with a lower AAV than the qualifying offer, and the qualifying offer protects them from, I dunno, the Colorado Rockies swooping in and offer him three years and $50 million because they've always liked his bat. The White Sox-Abreu relationship is an unusual one, and under other circumstances, the qualifying offer would be a refreshing turn of events.
With the White Sox, there tends to be a catch. The pessimistic/pragmatic strain of thought considers the qualifying offer and wonders who the White Sox won't get because they didn't have an extra $5 million on them. Few people are opposed to Abreu getting paid well, and those who are mostly want to see the White Sox pay other players well, too. The fear is that the qualifying offer continues the trend of recent Jery Reinsdorf teams rewarding the people they know at the expense or exclusion of those they don't.
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Abreu has plenty of company, as a total of 10 players received the $17.8 million qualifying offer.
- Abreu
- Madison Bumgarner
- Gerrit Cole
- Josh Donaldson
- Jake Odorizzi
- Marcell Ozuna
- Anthony Rendon
- Will Smith
- Stephen Strasburg
- Zack Wheeler
These 10 players have 10 days to decide. If they reject the offer, they'll become free agents, but they'll come at an additional cost to the team that signs them. The rules vary based on whether the teams involved receive revenue sharing or pay the luxury tax. For a team like the White Sox that does neither, they would pay $500,000 in international bonus money and lose their second-highest pick with every player signed.
Abreu's QO isn't the only one that sets the stage for a reunion. While all of these players are good, the least impressive players on this list are the ones who tend to get nailed by the qualifying offer tag. Specific to this year, Jake Odorizzi seems like he should take it, and Marcell Ozuna and the Cardinals will be discussing a multi-year deal. Smith might be informed by Craig Kimbrel's miserable 2019, just as Aroldis Chapman didn't press his luck.
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Another guy who didn't tempt fate: J.D. Martinez, who decided to remain in Boston with his existing contract, which has three years and $62.5 million remaining.
His decision takes one of the best bats off the market, and it also forces the Red Sox have to negotiate his salary when it comes to trying to get under the salary cap luxury tax threshold.
Martinez's opt-out was the one player decision that could've gone either way. Otherwise, the most notable decisions involved teams declining club options, including Kole Calhoun ($14 million) Julio Teheran ($12 million), Martín Perez ($7.5 million) and Jason Vargas ($8 million).
