NEW YORK (AP) — Shohei Ohtani, Cody Bellinger, Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell and Aaron Nola were among the 130 players who became free agents Thursday as baseball’s business season began the day following the Texas Rangers’ first World Series title.
Max Muncy, Joe Jiménez and Colin Rea gave up a chance to go free and agreed to new contracts with their teams.
That free agent market also includes Sonny Gray, Josh Hader, Matt Chapman, Jorge Soler and J.D. Martinez.
Minnesota prevented outfielder Max Kepler and infielder Jorge Polanco from going free, exercising a $10 million option on Kepler and and $10.5 million option on Polanco. Each would have been owed a $1 million buyout had the option been declined.
At the start of the day, 61 additional players had the potential to go free by Monday, depending on decisions on options and opt outs.
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Players may start negotiating with any team at 5 p.m. EST Monday, also the deadline for teams to make qualifying offers. Players may receive a qualifying offer if they spent the entire season with the team and have not previously received a qualifying offer. The amount is the average of the top 125 contracts by average annual value.
This year’s offer price is $20,625,000, up from $19.65 million last year.
Qualifying offers began after the 2012 season, and 10 of 124 offers have been accepted. Among the 14 players given offers last year, the only players to accept were outfielder Joc Pederson with San Francisco and left-hander Martín Pérez with Texas.
Rather than go free, Muncy agreed to a $24 million, two-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jiménez agreed to a $26 million, three-year contract with Atlanta and Rea got a $4.5 million, one-year contract with Milwaukee. The Brewers declined a $7.25 million option on left-hander Andrew Chafin and a $2.5 million option on left-hander Justin Wilson. They owe buyouts of $750,000 to Chafin and $150,000 to Wilson.
Washington declined a $3.3 million option on outfielder Victor Robles, who would be eligible for arbitration if tendered a contract.
Arizona Diamondbacks (3): Lourdes Gurriel, Evan Longoria, Tommy Pham
Atlanta Braves (2): Jesse Chavez, Kevin Pillar
Baltimore Orioles (5): Jack Flaherty, Adam Frazier, Shintaro Fujinami, Kyle Gibson, Aaron Hicks
Boston Red Sox (3): Adam Duvall, Adalberto Mondesí, James Paxton
Chicago Cubs (4): Jeimer Candelario, Tyler Duffey, Michael Fulmer, Shane Greene
Chicago White Sox (4): Elvis Andrus, Yasmani Grandal, Bryan Shaw, José Ureña
Cincinnati Reds (2): Harrison Bader, Buck Farmer
Cleveland Guardians (3): Kole Calhoun, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López
Colorado Rockies (3): Chase Anderson, Chris Flexen, Brent Suter
Detroit Tigers (2): Matt Boyd, José Cisnero
Houston Astros (4): Michael Brantley, Martín Maldonado, Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek
Kansas City Royals (3): Matt M. Duffy, Zack Greinke, Brad Keller
Los Angeles Angels (5): C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk, Mike Moustakas, Shohei Ohtani, Giovanny Urshela
Los Angeles Dodgers (12): Ryan Brasier, Kiké Hernández, Jason Heyward, Clayton Kershaw, Jake Marisnick, J.D. Martinez, Shelby Miller, Jimmy Nelson, David Peralta, Amed Rosario, Julio Urías, Kolten Wong
Miami Marlins (3): Yulieski Gurriel, David Robertson, Joey Wendle
Milwaukee Brewers (6): Víctor Caratini, Josh Donaldson, Colin Rea*, Darin Ruf, Carlos Santana, Jesse Winker
Minnesota Twins (8): Joey Gallo, Sonny Gray, Dallas Keuchel, Kenta Maeda, Tyler Mahle, Emilio Pagán, Donovan Solano, Michael A. Taylor
New York Mets (1): Carlos Carrasco
New York Yankees (7): Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Zach McAllister, Keynan Middleton, Frankie Montas, Wandy Peralta, Luis Severino, Luke Weaver
Oakland A’s (2): Tony Kemp, Trevor May
Philadelphia Phillies (4): Rhys Hoskins, Craig Kimbrel, Michael Lorenzen, Aaron Nola
Pittsburgh Pirates (2): Andrew McCutchen, Vincent Velasquez
St. Louis Cardinals (1): Drew VerHagen
San Diego Padres (9): Ji-Man Choi, Garrett Cooper, Luis Am. García, Josh Hader, Rich Hill, Drew Pomeranz, Jurickson Profar, Gary Sánchez, Blake Snell
San Francisco Giants (7): Scott Alexander, John Brebbia, Brandon Crawford, Jake Junis, Joc Pederson, Roberto Pérez, Alex Wood
Seattle Mariners (3): Teoscar Hernández, Dominic Leone, Tom Murphy
Tampa Bay Rays (3): Chris Devenski, Jacob Diekman, Robert Stephenson
Texas Rangers (12): Aroldis Chapman, Mitch Garver, Robbie Grossman, Austin Hedges, Travis Jankowski, Ian Kennedy, Brad Miller, Jordan Montgomery, Jake Odorizzi, Martín Pérez, Will M. Smith, Chris Stratton
Toronto Blue Jays (6): Brandon Belt, Matt Chapman, Jordan Hicks, Jay Jackson, Kevin Kiermaier, Hyun-Jin Ryu
Washington Nationals (1): C.J. Edwards