Under Major League Baseball’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, clubs may not tender a qualifying offer to a player who has previously received one. In many cases, it’s a moot point, as the player in question has reached a point in his career where another qualifying offer is no longer realistic. Others, though, are set to hit the open market as soon as next season at an age where another qualifying offer would’ve been plausible with a strong season. We’ll keep this post updated each offseason as new waves of players receive the qualifying offer, but for now, the following players are ineligible to receive one in the future.
Brett Anderson, SP
Jose Bautista, OF
Carlos Beltran, OF
Michael Bourn, OF
Melky Cabrera, OF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Yoenis Cespedes, OF
Wei-Yin Chen, SP
Shin-Soo Choo, OF
Nelson Cruz, OF
Chris Davis, 1B
Ian Desmond, INF/OF
Stephen Drew, INF
Jacoby Ellsbury, OF
Edwin Encarnacion, 1B
Marco Estrada, SP
Dexter Fowler, OF
Yovani Gallardo, SP
Alex Gordon, OF
Curtis Granderson, OF
Zack Greinke, SP
Josh Hamilton, 1B/OF
Jeremy Hellickson, SP
Jason Heyward, OF
Hisashi Iwakuma, SP
Kenley Jansen, RP
Ubaldo Jimenez, SP
Howie Kendrick, INF/OF
Ian Kennedy, SP
John Lackey, SP
Francisco Liriano, SP
Kyle Lohse, SP
Russell Martin, C
Victor Martinez, DH
Brian McCann, C
Kendrys Morales, DH
Daniel Murphy, 2B
Mike Napoli, 1B
Hanley Ramirez, 1B
Colby Rasmus, OF
David Robertson, RP
Jeff Samardzija, SP
Pablo Sandoval, 3B
Ervin Santana, SP
Max Scherzer, SP
James Shields, SP
Nick Swisher, 1B/OF
Mark Trumbo, 1B/OF
Justin Turner, 3B
Justin Upton, OF
Melvin Upton Jr., OF
Neil Walker, 2B
Matt Wieters, C
Jordan Zimmermann, SP
Retired: Michael Cuddyer, Hiroki Kuroda, Adam LaRoche, David Ortiz, Rafael Soriano
Vedder80
Jason Heyward? That’s funny. He would have to be a fool to think anyone would pay him what he is making if he opted out of that contract.
kc38
Why he’s not gonna opt out. So no he’s not a fool and nobody said he was gonna opt out
alexgordonbeckham
He COULD opt out. He has an opt out for after year 3 and 4 of his deal. All he needs to do is put up a good, healthy season or two and he can look for a 6-8 year deal at the age of 29 or 30.
This was the whole point of him taking less guaranteed money to sign with the Cubs. The offer he signed with them has a higher earnings potential.
Brixton
Since when does one bad season ruin your whole career? He was a star player for like 6 years with ATL and STL before getting a huge deal. He only needs like 2 Heyward-like years to be able to get a better deal
bucsfan
I’ve been asking that about Andrew McCutchen all offseason…
pjmcnu
No, he was a FUTURE star with ATL/STL for 6 years. All the commentators in his FA year said “His performance hasn’t been that great (other than defensive metrics), but he’s soooo young & full of potential, so he’s going to get paid.” And he was. And then the Cubs found out that, nope, that’s really Heyward, it doesn’t get any better. So no, he won’t get better or “rebound” (if you want to call it that), he won’t opt out, and he’ll laugh all the way to the bank. I wonder if the Cubs owner has to be held back by his bodyguards every time Heyward walks by…
thebighurt619
Nick Swisher is still around?
Connorsoxfan
Only in the sense that he hasn’t filed for retirement
cws2021
“Not in the sense that you mean.” – Anton Chigurh
yankees500
It’s funny to think that some of these guys were actually given qualifying offers.
dbacksrs
Kyle Lohse, lol.
kc38
Stephen drew lol
Connorsoxfan
Ubaldo and Michael Bourn
ilikebaseball 2
Even more crazy he turned it down. 14.1 Million. Boras gonna Boras.
Brixton
Lohse got one when it was like 12M, aka less than what Mark Melancon makes now..
Travis’ Wood
It’s called inflation.
reflect
Do players that received a QO under the old system count? I mean the OLD old system, with Type A and Type B and all that nonsense.
Or did that system even have qualifying offers? I dont even remember how it worked.
stl_cards16 2
Does not appear so. Doesn’t look like any pre-2012 free agents are on the list.
lowtalker1
That makes zero sense if it’s a new contract and a new team
bucsfan
Yeah I would hope in the future they’d tweak it so that the original team can’t extend a second QO, but if a player changed teams he could be tagged again.
brewpackbuckbadg
“Under Major League Baseball’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, clubs may not tender a qualifying offer to a player who has previously received one.”
Does this only apply for the new CBA? What I am asking is does everyone start fresh so players like Bautista can get one more qualifying offer but not a second one under this CBA? What does the actual language say? I have not heard if that loophole is a possibility.
jd396
Dumb system.