This qualifying offer should be less controversial than the last one the Yankees gave out.
The club on Monday extended the $23.15 million qualifying offer to closer David Bednar ahead of the 5 p.m. deadline, the first attempt to retain the important bullpen piece entering an offseason in which he should be one of their top priorities.
Bednar has until Nov. 17 to accept or reject the one-year offer at a higher average annual value than he is likely to get on the free-agent market, but less overall money.
If he declines it, the Yankees can still try to sign him to a contract as a free agent, but have the protection that if he signs with another club, they would receive draft pick compensation.
The Yankees did not make the qualifying offer to fellow pending free agent Jazz Chisholm Jr., a year after they gave one to Trent Grisham and he accepted, only to take a step back after a career year in 2025.
Chisholm is coming off a rough season that could result in him signing a pillow contract, making it risky that if the Yankees extended him the qualifying offer (in order to get draft pick compensation), he might accept it. And while Chisholm has plenty of talent, the Yankees were not able to bring it out of him consistently enough, making a split seem inevitable.
Bednar, meanwhile, has proven to be valuable, durable and low-maintenance in his year and a half in The Bronx after the Yankees acquired him from the Pirates. Relievers can be volatile from year to year – even Bednar was demoted to Triple-A early in the 2025 season – but the 32-year-old right-hander may be worth the investment from the Yankees.
Across 86 games as a Yankee, Bednar pitched to a 2.39 ERA with 45 saves and 111 strikeouts in 94 innings, while giving up one run in eight playoff appearances. He did not spend a day on the injured list with the team, having avoided any IL stints for arm injuries throughout his big league career.
Since signing Aroldis Chapman to a five-year, $86 million contract in 2016 (with a three-year, $48 million extension in 2019) and Zack Britton to a three-year, $39 million deal in 2019, the Yankees have shied away from big-money, longer-term pacts for relievers. They have been adept at unearthing cheap bullpen arms from the scrap heap, including two that became future closers in Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver.
But Bednar’s potential return this offseason is especially important given that the Yankees are facing the challenge of having to build almost an entire bullpen. The only sure thing returning is lefty setup man Brent Headrick, who ran out of gas late this season after being leaned on heavily. Fernando Cruz has a partially torn UCL that he is trying to come back from without surgery, which is hardly a given. And their other top reliever from 2026, righty setup man Paul Blackburn (the latest reclamation project), is now a free agent and poised to earn significantly more than the $2.1 million the Yankees paid him this year.
If Bednar declines the qualifying offer, he should have some leverage on his side, even with the draft-pick compensation attached to him. He would arguably become the top reliever in free agency, with the other notable bullpen arms including Padres lefty Adrian Morejon (who was also extended a qualifying offer on Monday) and Braves closer Raisel Iglesias.
Last year, 13 players received the qualifying offer and a record four accepted, including Grisham.