Raise your hand if you saw this coming…we’ll wait. FOUR players accepted the qualifying offer today, and we’ll break it all down for you.

Today was the deadline for players who were extended the qualifying offer to accept the one-year, $22.025 million deal, or reject it and hit the market with draft pick compensation attached.

For the top free agents, this is never much of a decision, as draft pick compensation will not impact their market much, and if even if it does, these free agents can typically land a short-term deal with opt-outs that allows them to circumvent the QO and maybe get an additional year or two of security.

In a typical offseason, we would only see one or two of these picked up at most. But this year, either due to the uncertainty of an expiring CBA or just more risky tenders than we have seen in the past offseason, four players have taken the QO.

This takes four of the top free agents off the market, and changes the offseason plans of four teams who may have been expecting draft pick compensation coming back instead of their former players returning on relatively expensive one-year deals.

Who Rejected the Qualifying Offer?

We are going to spend plenty of time on the free agents who just accepted the qualifying offer, but let's first address the free agents who declined it.

Nine free agents chose to reject the qualifying offer, who are now hitting the market tied to draft pick compensation if any team other than their own signs them in free agency.

Here are the players who declined the qualifying offer for 2026:

• OF Kyle Tucker, Chicago Cubs

• SS Bo Bichette, Toronto Blue Jays

• DH Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies

• SP Dylan Cease, San Diego Padres

• SP Framber Valdez, Houston Astros

• SP Ranger Suarez, Philadelphia Phillies

• SP Michael King, San Diego Padres

• SP Zac Gallen, Arizona Diamondbacks

• RP Edwin Diaz, New York Mets

Who Accepted the Qualifying Offer?

Looking over the four players who accepted the qualifying offer, you have one current and one former Yankee who each would have struggled to find deals if teams had to forfeit draft capital.

You also have two pitchers who likely could have gotten a prove-it deal on the market that was similar to the QO, but maybe they prefer standing on a spot where they are comfortable to pitch for their next contract.

SP Shota Imanga, Chicago Cubs

This might be the biggest surprise of the four free agents who accepted the qualifying offer, only because Imanaga is coming off a healthy season and starting pitchers are valued at a premium in free agency.

It is fair to assume that Imanaga could have at the very least gotten a one-year deal at the same salary on the open market, and might have been able to get a player option tacked on to give him a bit of a pillow to hedge against another down-year.

However, if Imanaga did not have the QO attached, he very well could get a three-year or four-year deal at that same salary. Ultimately, Imanaga needs to bounce back and show he is the pitcher we saw who was an All-Star in 2024, when he finished top five in the Cy Young voting.

Accepting the qualifying offer allows Imanaga to remain where he is comfortable and try to pitch himself into a much better situation when he can't be tagged with the QO next season.

For the Cubs, this works out well as they keep a dependable arm in their rotation, but get out of having to pay him past his age-32 season. The Cubs could have opted into a three-year, $57 million extension for Imanaga after the season, but elected to decline it instead.

This led Imanaga to have a decision on a $15 million player option. He declined, which triggered the QO tender from the Cubs. This set up a win-win for Chicago.

Either he hit the market, coming off their books and they would have gotten draft pick compensation, or he returns on a one-year deal that is only a shade more than they would have paid him anyway.

Cubs keep an important arm, Imanaga gets a slight raise, and now faces the pressure of a platform year before hitting free agency again next winter.

SP Brandon Woodruff, Milwaukee Brewers

Another top free agent starting pitcher who would have faced an uncertain market with the qualifying offer attached. Woodruff missed all of 2024 recovering from shoulder surgery, and was then held to just 12 starts in an injury-plagued 2025 season.

When on the mound, this homegrown has always been effective, with a career 3.10 ERA and a 3.20 ERA during the 2025 season.

The $22.025 million qualifying offer is more than double what Woodruff has ever made in a season, and gives him a chance to stay with the only team he has ever known to try to win in 2026, and rebuild his value to take one big bite out of the free agent apple next winter.

OF Trent Grisham, New York Yankees

The New York Yankees made a pretty bold decision when they tendered a qualifying offer to Trent Grisham. Never in Grisham's career prior to 2025 did he show the resemblance of being a $20+ million player. Then he hit 34 homers in a platform year and got the QO in return.

The most home runs Grisham had ever hit in a season prior to 2025 was 17. If he can continue that power surge for another year, this will be a fine investment for the Yankees.

However with Aaron Judge entrenched in right field, Jasson Dominguez needing more playing time in left or center, and Cody Bellinger still likely being a top priority in free agency, paying Grisham $22.025 million makes things a bit more complicated for the Yankees.

Luckily with Bellinger's versatility to play first base, the Yankees can still find a way to get all the pieces to fit together. But this is one where the team was maybe wishing for a different result than what they got with Grisham taking the deal.

2B Gleyber Torres, Detroit Tigers

Last year, the New York Yankees were more disciplined with Gleyber Torres than they were with Grisham this year, as they did not tender a qualifying offer to their longtime second baseman.

Unfortunately for Torres, this left him open to get tagged with one this year and the Tigers took advantage, opting to tender him the deal after a strong first season in Detroit.

Torres was a steady force in the Tigers lineup, hitting 16 home runs, driving in 74, and posting a 113 wRC+. The soon-to-be 29-year-old posted a 2.6 fWAR season, which is solid output, but maybe not quite worth $22.025 million.

Due to his age, and the fact that he stood to be the top free agent second baseman on the market, it was a fair gamble for the Tigers to take extending him the QO, as they could have received draft pick compensation in return. If so, that $15 million investment they made last offseason would have provided quite the return.

Now, they are locked into giving Torres a raise, but one that should not be too prohibitive for them spending more in free agency. The Tigers have a window to win-now with Tarik Skubal, and Torres a solid second baseman that helps them do that in 2026.

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Impact on the Market

When it comes to the starting pitching market, two of the best arms that could have been available are now off the table with Shota Imanaga and Brandon Woodruff. That stands to only improve the market for the other top starters, as there are only so many impact arms to go around.

When it comes to second base, Jorge Polanco now stands out as the clear top bat at the position, and this may also make trade candidates Brendan Donovan, Jeff McNeil, and Brandon Lowe more attractive for teams that could have tried to sign Torres to fill that void.

Meanwhile, Harrison Bader now stands out as the only true starting center fielder on the market without Grisham available. Cody Bellinger can also play center field, although he's better in a corner.

With the Yankees being more financially strained, maybe teams are even more aggressive in trying to pry Bellinger away from the Bronx in free agency.