The Los Angeles Angels and teams around Major League Baseball will begin to ramp up preparations for next season, starting with decisions on qualifying offers, which have gone up since last year.
The salary for a qualifying offer is determined from an average of the top 125 major league contracts from the 2022 season, and the QO tag is set at $19.65 million, up $1.25 million from 2021.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian won’t be extending the qualifying offer to anyone on his roster, but around MLB, some premier talents are eligible and set to become free agents. New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, New York Mets pitchers Jacob deGrom, Edwin Díaz and Chris Bassitt and outfielder Brandon Nimmo, Boston shortstop Xander Bogaerts, Atlanta shortstop Dansby Swanson, Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner, Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras and San Francisco pitcher Carlos Rodón.
Players eligible must have been with the team for the entirety of the season and cannot have received the qualifying offer at any point in their career. The offer can be made through the fifth day following the completion of the World Series, and a player has one week after that to accept the deal.
Players who are forecast to be eligible for free agency but not for qualifying offers include Chicago White Sox first baseman José Abreu, Minnesota shortstop Carlos Correa and Philadelphia pitcher Noah Syndergaard.
The league and the Major League Baseball Player’s Association bargained to eliminate the qualifying offer prior to the start of the season. However, after talks reached a standstill, they ultimately kept the system in place for another year.
First projection of Angels 2023 roster
There remains an eternity between now and the start of the 2023 MLB season. But for the Angels — who missed the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season — there’s nothing but time to figure out a plan. All the while, eight teams are still fighting for a World Series championship.
Between free agency, trades, and Minor League promotions, the Angels will have several means of improving a roster that finished 73-89 in 2022 despite elite play from Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, as well as a top-10 pitching staff.
But before any of that takes place, the Angels can look at their 2022 roster, as well as their top Minor Leaguers, to try and put together a “first draft” of their 2023 26-man roster.
