With the World Series now over, Monday marks one of the first important deadlines of the MLB offseason as teams must decide whether or not to issue qualifying offers to their own free agents. Those players then have until Nov. 14 at 4 p.m. ET to either accept or reject.
As a reminder, the qualifying offer is a one-year deal at a set salary, which is $20.35 million this winter. It gives teams a chance to bring back their own free agents early in the winter while guaranteeing them draft pick compensation if the player declines and signs elsewhere in free agency. While top free agents like Shohei Ohtani, Matt Chapman, Cody Bellinger, J.D. Martinez, Blake Snell, Josh Hader and Aaron Nola are among the candidates to receive qualifying offers, the top Red Sox free agent, Justin Turner, isn’t. And that means the Red Sox will not receive a compensatory draft pick if he signs elsewhere.
Why?
MLB rules dictate that a player who was previously issued a qualifying offer can never get one again. Turner rejected one from the Dodgers in Nov. 2016 (then re-signed on a four-year, $64 million deal a month later), so he’s not eligible to receive one again in his career.
Issuing the qualifying offer to Turner might have made some sense for the Red Sox even if the $20.5 million salary is a significant bump from his 2023 guarantee ($15 million) and what he might command on the open market. If the Red Sox were hesitant to guarantee a second year to the soon-to-be 39-year-old, locking him up at a high rate for one season would make some sense. Alas, that’s not an option now. Turner elected free agency Friday by declining his $13.4 million player option for 2024 and taking a $6.7 million buyout.
Other Red Sox free agents like Adam Duvall and James Paxton are not qualifying offer candidates so the Red Sox won’t get any draft picks if their free agents sign elsewhere like they did a year ago. Boston got the Nos. 132 and 133 picks in the draft when Xander Bogaerts (San Diego) and Nathan Eovaldi (Texas) signed elsewhere. They picked two college shortstops, Georgia Tech’s Kristian Campbell and Wright State’s Justin Riemer, with those two selections.
The Red Sox have never had a player accept their qualifying offer since the system came into effect in 2012. Both Bogaerts and Eovaldi declined it last winter, joining Eduardo Rodriguez (2021), Craig Kimbrel (2018), Jacoby Ellsbury (2013), Stephen Drew (2013), Mike Napoli (2013) and David Ortiz (2012) as those who said no.
