Thursday was the deadline for teams to make qualifying offers to their players who are free agents and the Cubs did so for two such players.
Kyle Tucker was an obvious choice to make the offer of $22.025
million. Just as obvious is the fact that he’ll turn it down and head toward another team in free agency.
Per this MLB Trade Rumors article, the compensation pick the Cubs would get for losing Tucker would fall in between Competitive Balance Round B and the top of the third round. The two Competitive Balance rounds have not yet been set, but last year between the two Competitive Balance rounds there were 15 picks. Thus any such pick granted to the Cubs would wind up somewhere around 75th overall. As always, we await developments.
The situation with Shōta Imanaga is a bit more complicated. The team turned down a three-year, $57.75 million option. That triggered a $15.25 million player option for Imanaga, which he declined to become a free agent.
So Imanaga could take the $22.025 million, which is above what he would have made in 2026 from either the team option (AAV of $19.25 million) or the player option. Or he could hit the free-agent market and hope to beat that AAV.
That’s not as cut and dried a decision as you might think. Shane Bieber, who threw pretty well for the Blue Jays when he returned over seven starts in the regular season and four more outings in the postseason (59 total innings), decided to exercise a player option and stay in Toronto. Maybe he just likes it there or maybe he didn’t think he could do better on the open market. Jack Flaherty, who had a season in Detroit worse than Imanaga’s, decided to exercise a $20 million player option rather than hit the open market.
Thus it’s possible that Imanaga sees the $22.025 million, takes it and tries to rebuild his value in 2026 and then be a free agent without a QO restriction a year from now. Or maybe he throws well and works out an extension deal with the Cubs.
Again, as always, we await developments. Here are all 13 players who were made qualifying offers this year:
Players have until 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Nov. 18 to accept or reject qualifying offers.
