Juan Soto, Alex Bregman, Willy Adames, Pete Alonso, Corbin Burnes and Max Fried are among the 12 players who opted for free agency instead of signing the qualifying offers extended to them by their teams, leaving Cincinnati Reds right-hander Nick Martinez as the lone player to accept ahead of Tuesday's deadline.
Soto, the crown jewel of this year's free agent class, spent last season with the New York Yankees team that won the American League pennant and is widely expected to sign a contract worth at least $500 million. Bregman, Adames, Alonso, Burnes and Fried should also net nine-figure deals.
The qualifying offer is a mechanism for teams to receive compensatory draft picks when their best players sign elsewhere. Eligible free agents -- those who have not previously been given a qualifying offer and spent the entire prior season on the same team -- can be tendered a one-year contract for the mean salary of Major League Baseball's 125 highest-paid players, a number that has jumped from $13.3 million to $21.05 million over the past dozen years.
If that player signs elsewhere, his prior team will receive an additional draft pick either after the first round or fourth round, with earlier picks going to smaller-market teams and later picks given to those who carried higher payrolls. Teams that sign those players also face penalties. The harshest are levied against those that exceeded the luxury tax threshold, costing them their second- and fifth-highest selections in the upcoming draft and an additional $1 million in international bonus pool money.
Martinez's agent Scott Boras said Monday that the righty will play next season on a one-year, $21.05 million contract. Since the qualifying offer system began in 2012, only 14 of 144 players have accepted one.
Being tied to a qualifying offer does not typically affect high demand free agents like Soto, Bregman, Adames, Alonso, Burnes or Fried. But the tier below them -- a list composed of outfielders Anthony Santander and Teoscar Hernandez, first baseman Christian Walker and starting pitchers Nick Pivetta, Sean Manaea and Luis Severino -- could have their markets impacted by teams hesitant to absorb the penalties that come with signing them.