The Toronto Blue Jays are reportedly extending qualifying offers to Marcus Semien and Robbie Ray, an expected next step as contract negotiations between the two free agents and the team unfold, but will not be extending one to Steven Matz, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.
Jays are extending the qualifying offer to Marcus Semien
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 6, 2021
By issuing the qualifying offers to Semien and Ray, which are worth the mean salary of MLB’s 125 highest-paid players, the Blue Jays make themselves eligible to receive draft-pick compensation if Semien or Ray choose to sign elsewhere.
Players have 10 days to accept or decline the qualifying offer, during which they are allowed to negotiate with other teams during this window. If a player accepts the qualifying offer, they are signed for the following year at the mean-salary rate. If a player rejects, they are free to explore the free-agent market. Historically, it has been uncommon for a player to accept the offer.
Coming off stellar seasons that played a pivotal part in the Blue Jays’ push for a playoff spot, putting them in position to secure significant off-season deals, both Semien and Ray will likely join the list of players who have declined.
Jays recently made a multiyear offer to Steven Matz. He did not accept it so free agency awaits. Jays ultimately decided not to give Matz the $18.4M qualifying offer.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 6, 2021
Deciding whether or not to issue a qualifying offer to Matz, who is coming off a career-best season, was less of an obvious choice. Despite pitching over 400 innings across four seasons before joining the Blue Jays, he managed just a 2.1 WAR.
Last year, the left-hander posted a 2.8 WAR with 150.2 innings of 3.82 ERA ball, entering the free-agent market fresh off an impressive, outlier performance relative to his recent history.
Matz is coming off a one-year, $5.2 million contract. Ray joined the Blue Jays in November of 2020, agreeing to a one-year, $8 million deal. Semien signed a one-year, $18 million contract in January of 2020.
Semien went on to establish career-bests last season with 45 home runs, a single-season record for a second baseman, as well as 102 RBIs, 15 stolen bases and a .538 slugging percentage. He was named the Marvin Miller Man of the Year award winner this off-season in the 2021 Players Choice Awards.
Ray, who earned AL Oustanding Pitcher honours at the Players Choice Awards, led the American League with a 2.84 earned-run average, 32 starts, 193.1 innings, 248 strikeouts and a 1.045 WHIP — all career-bests — serving as the bedrock for the Blue Jays’ pitching staff.
