Qualifying offer for MLB players in 2020 makes another big jump, per report

In a year that’s be a constantly evolving situation and more often that not a dumpster fire, one this is remaining the status quo going into the offseason: an increasing qualifying offer. Evan Drellich of The Athletic reports the golden number for this year:

For those who need a refresher on the mechanics of offseason baseball, the qualifying offer is a one year extended deal to a freshly free agent. Only players who have never recieved one prior in their career qualify. If that deal is rejected, the team that made it will receive draft pick compensation from whatever team picks up said free agent. Each year, the offer number is created based off of the top 125 salaries in baseball. So that means, yes, in a season that lasted the blink of an eye, we saw a jump in contract salaries.

Now, many fans were expecting there to be no qualifying offer this year give the extraneous circumstances, but just because it’s on the table doesn’t mean teams will be so willing to dish them out.

J.T. Realmuto, Trevor Bauer, Marcus Stroman, and George Springer are just a few of the big free agent names we’ll begin to see flare up as plausible qualifying offer candidates.

Last year, Jose Abreu and Jake Odorizzi were the only players to accept qualifying offers before the 2020 season. While the option isn’t something that’s popular amongst free agents who want to sow their wild oats elsewhere, in an offseason marred with uncertainty, some may just take them out of pure security.