There’s a little bit of procedural news today. First, it was the deadline for players to officially accept or reject the qualifying offer. As expected, Bo Bichette has rejected the Jays’ offer. Bo is going to make a lot more than $22.025 million over a lot more than one year, so accepting the QO was never a realistic expectation. In terms of other teams’ impending free agents:
- Four players accepted the offer, a new record. They include the Yankees’ Trent Grisham, the Tigers’ Gleyber Torres, the Brewers’ Brandon Woodruff, and the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga.
- Eight players, in addition to Bo, rejected it: Kyle Tucker, Kyle Schwarber, Framber Valdez, Dylan Cease, Ranger Suarez, Edwin Diaz, Zac Gallen, and Michael King.
None of those decisions are significant surprises.
It was also the deadline to add players to the 40-man roster and protect them from the upcoming Rule 5 Draft. As a refresher, players are eligible for the draft if they are not on a 40 manroster and a certain number of rule 5 drafts have passed since they signed their minor league contract, with the number varying by age. This year, high schoolers and some junior college players drafted in 2021 and college players drafted in 2022 are newly eligible, as are many 21 year old international free agents.
The Jays added Brandon Valenzuela to the 40 man roster back on November 6th. The return in the Will Wagner trade is an above average catcher who struggled a little in Buffalo but who should be a solid glove-first backup in the long run. He’ll be the third catcher in 2026. Following outrighting Nick Sandlin yesterday, the Jays had 37 players on their 40 man roster.
Today, Ricky Tiedmeann was added. Tiedemann has had some setbacks in his Tommy John rehab, but he’s on track to be ready for spring training and it sounds like the stuff that made him a top 50 prospect is intact. There’s no way he’d have gone unclaimed, so it was no surprise he was added.
The Jays have opted to keep a couple of spots open for trades or free agent signings, meaning that several notable prospects have been left unprotected. In rough order of their likelihood of being taken:
- Connor Cooke and T.J. Brock both missed the entire 2025 season, so the Jays may feel that they can sneak them through. They should be expected to return early in 2026, though, and while their results in 2024 weren’t great they both have dominant stuff that looks like it could get major league outs. They’re definitely the kind of lottery ticket arms a team might roll the dice on.
- Josh Kasevich is probably the position player most at risk of being selected. His season was derailed by injury, and his top line stats when he did play were ugly, but he still has excellent contact ability and feel for the strike zone and he plays a capable shortstop. He could almost certainly hold his own as a utility infielder right away and has a little upside beyond that
- Yohendrick Pinango scuffled a little bit following his promotion to AAA this year, and he doesn’t really have a defensive home, but he produces exceptional exit velocity numbers to go with very good plate discipline and contact. If he finds a way to lift the ball a little more he could be a valuable bench bat or possibly even an everyday LF/DH slugger.
- Yondrei Rojas was dominant across A, A+, and AA this past season, striking out 47 in 37.2 innings against just 11 walks. His fastball is a cutter that sits 96, and pitching models grade it as one of the best in the minors. He pairs it with a solid sinker, slider and change up and decent command. He’s had some injury issues and got roughed up in his brief Arizona Fall League stint, but he’s the kind of relief prospect a team might think can hold his own in the back of an MLB bullpen.
- Victor Arias and Edward Duran are two other significant prospects who are eligible but unlikely to be taken. Arias is an exceptional athlete who has made it to AA, but he looked a little out of his depth there and doesn’t seem like a candidate to survive MLB pitching right away. Duran might be a plus fielding catcher, and he’s exceeded light expectations offensively so far, but he’s also just 21 and hasn’t seen AA.
It seems likely that at least one or two of these players will wind up being taken. Good organizations should regularly be losing players in the Rule 5 draft, because it means they have depth to the point of having players other teams like that they just don’t have room for, but it’s never fun to lose prospects. We’ll find out who gets taken on December 10th.
