Major League Baseball’s qualifying offer for the 2026-27 free-agent class has risen to $23.15 million, according to FOX Sports. That figure marks a 5.1% increase over last offseason’s $22,025,000 mark and will serve as the benchmark teams use to decide whether to tie draft-pick compensation to their impending free agents.
The qualifying offer is calculated by averaging the salaries of the 125 highest-paid players in the league, per FOX Sports. The system has grown considerably since it replaced free-agent compensation rules after the 2012 season, when the qualifying offer started at $13.3 million.
The Main Development: A Bigger Number, A Rare Yes
Teams have until a set deadline each offseason to extend one-year qualifying offers to their own impending free agents. Players who decline and sign elsewhere cost their new team draft-pick compensation, while those who accept lock in a one-year, $23.15 million salary with their current club.
History shows most players turn the offer down. Since the system began, only 18 of 157 qualifying offers have been accepted, according to FOX Sports. Last offseason bucked that trend in a big way, as a record four players accepted: Shota Imanaga, Brandon Woodruff, Trent Grisham and Gleyber Torres.
What It Means For This Offseason’s Market
The higher price tag raises the stakes for teams weighing whether a departing player is worth the one-year financial commitment if he says yes. For the New York Yankees, that calculus appears to be playing out with two very different outcomes at two positions.
The Yankees are expected to extend the $23.15 million qualifying offer to closer David Bednar, according to the New York Post. Bednar, 32, posted a 2.47 ERA and 1.038 WHIP across 69.1 innings over 64 relief appearances in 2026, numbers that make him a candidate to accept and return on a lucrative one-year deal or test a market that values him similarly.
Second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. is not expected to get the same offer from New York, per the Post. Chisholm, 28, hit .231 with 19 home runs, 55 RBI and 41 stolen bases over 137 games this season, a step down from the previous year, when he became just the third player in Yankees history to post 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in a single season, according to Bleacher Report.
Context: A Thinning Dodgers Roster And Skubal’s Response
The Yankees are not the only contender facing qualifying-offer decisions. Nine players from the 2026 Los Angeles Dodgers roster are reaching free agency, with left-hander Tarik Skubal standing as the biggest name on that list, according to Yahoo Sports.
Skubal pushed back on any notion that the group’s talent or commitment is in question after Los Angeles’ postseason exit. “I don’t feel that at all. It’s hard to win the World Series, and this group has done it the last two seasons.
Obviously, not this year, but … I think that this group is incredibly talented. And the preparation and the work ethic that this group has, I don’t buy into that narrative,” Skubal said, according to Yahoo Sports.
What’s Next
Teams across the league now have the updated $23.15 million figure in hand as they finalize qualifying-offer decisions on their own free agents this offseason. The Yankees’ calls on Bednar and Chisholm, along with how the Dodgers handle their nine impending free agents led by Skubal, will be among the first tests of how the higher number shapes team strategy.
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