Only Eight Players Get MLB Qualifying Offers, and Jake Bauers Is the Surprise Name

Eight players, one $23.15 million question each, and a list that says as much about the free-agent class as it does about the players on it. Major League Baseball teams made qualifying offers to just eight players by the November 2 deadline, the second-fewest in a full season since the system began in 2012. The headline names are familiar. The name that made people stop scrolling is Jake Bauers.

Who made the list?

The eight are Randy Arozarena of the Seattle Mariners, Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs, Ryan Jeffers of the Minnesota Twins, David Bednar of the New York Yankees, Brandon Lowe of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Trevor Rogers of the Baltimore Orioles, Adrian Morejon of the San Diego Padres and Jake Bauers of the Milwaukee Brewers. Each was offered the same one-year deal for 2027: $23.15 million. The 2026 salaries behind those names show how uneven the jump is. Arozarena made $15.65 million and Suzuki $19 million, while Bauers made $2.7 million, Morejon $3.9 million and Rogers $6.2 million. The offer is a raise for all eight, but for the bottom of the list it is a different sport financially.

How does a qualifying offer work?

A club can offer one only to its own impending free agent, and only if he spent the entire walk year with that club and has never received a qualifying offer before. That is why the biggest star of this free-agent class is nowhere on the list: Tarik Skubal, traded to the Dodgers during the season, was ineligible, and USA Today reports he is expected to be the only free agent to earn more than $200 million. The $23.15 million figure itself is mechanical, the average of the salaries of the 125 highest-paid players in the league. Players have until November 17 to accept or reject. Accept, and they are signed for 2027 at that figure. Reject, and they hit the open market with a price attached: the club that signs them forfeits draft-pick compensation, and in some cases international bonus pool space too.

Why is Bauers the story of the list?

Because two years ago he was nearly out of baseball entirely. MLB Trade Rumors rated him a long shot for an offer as recently as September, and the backstory explains why. At the end of the 2024 season, after a career line of .208/.302/.361, the Brewers put Bauers on outright waivers and all 29 other clubs passed. He later told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he had been ready to retire while his wife returned to full-time teaching, and only kept playing when she became pregnant because the family needed health insurance. He re-signed on a minor league deal, cracked the Opening Day roster, and then produced the season of his life: 26 home runs, a .266/.389/.484 slash line, a 16.3 percent walk rate and a 143 wRC+ that ranked among the best in the league. He won NLCS MVP honours as Milwaukee swept to its first World Series title, in the celebration that produced Pat Murphy’s viral Yankees jab to Bauers. The qualifying offer is nearly nine times his 2026 salary, and USA Today notes it would pay him twice as much as he has earned in his entire career. That is why MLB Trade Rumors calls him the most likely of the eight to accept, unless another club offers the multi-year security he has never had.

What about the other names to watch?

Adrian Morejon is the other fascinating decision. USA Today calls him the game’s top setup man and notes that accepting would make him the highest-paid reliever in baseball for 2027, passing Dodgers closer Edwin Diaz at $23 million. The Padres made the offer despite Morejon missing San Diego’s final playoff games with shoulder trouble, which MLB Trade Rumors reads as confidence in his health and, under the club’s new ownership, its finances. At the other end of the list, Arozarena and Suzuki are the likeliest to decline and chase multi-year deals: Arozarena hit .281 with 26 home runs, 79 RBI and 26 steals as a two-time All-Star, and Suzuki hit .270 with 26 home runs and 86 RBI for his fourth straight 20-homer season. Both are the kind of bats a thin market pays for, draft-pick cost included.

Who was left off, and why does it matter?

Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the notable omission, and it is a story this desk has already followed: the Yankees gave their offer to Bednar instead, a decision at the heart of the Gossage row over Chisholm’s lollipop incident. For Chisholm, MLB Trade Rumors argues, missing out is actually helpful, because clubs interested in signing him will not have to surrender draft compensation. Ian Happ, Ty France and Michael Soroka are in the same position. The snubs underline the thinness USA Today points to: this is judged the weakest free-agent class in at least a decade, and the eight offers are the evidence.

What happens by November 17?

History says most of the eight will decline. Only 18 of 157 players have ever accepted a qualifying offer, although a record four accepted last year, and USA Today notes it is possible nobody accepts this time, something that has happened four times before. The deadline also lands in the shadow of the labour fight: the current collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1, and the qualifying-offer decisions will be made while the lockout dispute over a salary cap remains unresolved. Bauers is the player to watch first. If he accepts, Milwaukee keeps its NLCS MVP for one more year at a price nobody would have predicted two years ago. If he declines, some club will have decided a journeyman turned champion is worth a multi-year deal plus a draft pick, which would be the final twist in the strangest career arc on the list.