Thursday, Nov. 6, marks an important date on Major League Baseball's offseason calendar : the qualifying offer deadline.

Each offseason, certain free agents are eligible for the qualifying offer (QO). Those eligible free agents are ones who have never before received the QO and who spent the prior season with only one team (e.g., players traded during the season cannot receive the QO). The QO is set as the average of the top 125 salaries for a given year, and for the 2025-26 offseason it's $22.205 million. Eligible players who accept the QO will play the 2026 season under that salary and those who turn it down become free agents, albeit with the QO attached. That attachment means that the free agent's former team is entitled to compensation in the form of an additional draft pick. T

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