MLB free agent qualifying offer declines for first time
Major League Baseball players who take a one-year qualifying offer instead of free agency will be making less money in 2020 than they would have in the past.
The qualifying offer, which debuted in 2012, rose to $17.9 million for 2019. It will drop slightly in 2018, however, to $17.8 million, marking the first time that the value of the qualifying offer fell from one year to the next.
As free agency approaches, sources say a player who accepts a qualifying offer this winter will get a one-year, $17.8-million contract next season.
That’s down from $17.9M. It’s the first time the value of the qualifying offer has ever dropped from one year to the next.
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) October 11, 2019
This is not a shock, as the qualifying offer is simply an average of of the game’s 125 highest salaries. With more teams cutting costs and spending less money, some of those top salaries are becoming a bit lower. After all, there was a report that the league awarded a championship belt to whichever team managed to keep its arbitration costs down the most.
It remains to be seen if there’s going to be any change to free agency after top players were made to wait until spring training — or even later, in the cases of Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel — to sign with teams. This, however, is a symptom of the economic issues the sport faces.
