The New York Mets announced on Saturday night that they had extended qualifying offers to right-handed starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard and outfielder Michael Conforto. They have until Nov. 17 to accept or decline.
The qualifying offer, for those new to the concept, is essentially a one-year contract that enables teams to recoup draft-pick compensation should their players reject and sign with another club. The QO is something teams can tender to free agents who haven't had it offered to them previously in their careers, and spent the entire season with said team.
This year's qualifying offer value is $18.4 million -- that isn't just a random number, to be clear, it's the average salary of the highest 125 paid players in the sport. It's also, notably, the first time the QO hasn't increased year-to-year, as the QO was worth $18.9 million last offseason.
It's unclear whether either Syndergaard or Conforto will accept. There are cases to be made in either direction, however.
Syndergaard, 29 years old, has appeared in just two games since the end of the 2019 season because of Tommy John surgery. He showed diminished fastball velocity and didn't throw a breaking ball in either appearance, meaning teams will have to do their homework to figure out if he can return to his old form. Syndergaard was ranked No. 16 on CBS Sports' top-50 free-agent list.
Conforto, 28, had one of the worst seasons of his career. He hit .232/.344/.384 (101 OPS+) with just 14 home runs on the season. Conforto's season can be blamed on a slow start, as he entered the All-Star Break with a seasonal line of .202/.341/.298. Comparatively, his second-half line (.252/.347/.445) looks healthier for a purported middle-of-the-order threat. CBS Sports ranked him as the 21st best free agent available this winter.
The Mets are no strangers to having a player accept the QO. Just last winter, right-hander Marcus Stroman accepted after having opted out of the 2020 campaign. That decision proved to be a mutually beneficial one, as Stroman authored a quality season for New York, positioning himself to cash in on a multi-year contract this winter.
Teams have until Nov. 7 to make their qualifying offers.
