Ohtani, Nola among seven tendered qualifying offers

Seven major league free agents have been tendered a qualifying offer in advance of today’s 4 p.m. Central deadline for teams to make a qualifying offer. Those seven players are:

Cody Bellinger

Matt Chapman

Sonny Gray

Josh Hader

Aaron Nola

Shohei Ohtani

Blake Snell

All seven were expected to receive qualifying offers. At this point, I suspect none of the seven accept.

The only Ranger free agent who was eligible to be tendered a qualifying offer, and who might have been tendered the qualifying offer, is Mitch Garver. The catcher/DH would provide the Rangers with depth at both positions he plays, in the likely event he had accepted, on a one year deal. However, it would appear that $20.325 million for one year is more than the Rangers were comfortable with.

Qualifying offers can only be tendered to players who have spent the entire season with the club they ended the year with, and so players traded mid-season, such as Jordan Montgomery and Aroldis Chapman, are ineligible to receive a qualifying offer. In addition, a player can only be tendered the QO once in his career, and thus Martin Perez — who signed the QO tender made by the Rangers last year — is ineligible.

Players have until November 14 to accept the qualifying offer. If they decline the offer, the team that signs them gets penalized in the draft, and the team that loses the free agent gets a compensatory pick.