Toronto Blue Jays to make offer to Bo Bichette today

Let the free agent frenzy begin!

Major League Baseball's quiet period ends today. As of 5pm ET, free agents can negotiate & sign with any club of their choice.

Today is also the deadline for teams to make qualifying offers to eligible free agents

After Shane Bieber exercised his $16 million player option yesterday, that gave the Blue Jays more payroll flexibility to concentrate on re-signing Bo Bichette.

According to many MLB insiders, Bichette is projected to get a free agent contract in the eight-year $212-$220 million range.

For those unfamiliar, the qualifying offer is a one-year, $22.05MM contract that a club can offer to outgoing free agents who began the year with the team and haven't previously received one.

If that offer is declined, the free agent will enter the market tied to draft pick compensation.

In most cases, especially with Bo Bichette the player will turn down the qualifying offer to become a free agent in the hopes of long-term lucrative deal.

Ben Nicholson-Smith reported this morning that the Blue Jays will make a qualifying offer to Bichette later today.

Teams like the Blue Jays in this case, will make the qualifying offer to protect themselves in case their star player decides to sign somewhere else.

The signing team would then have to give up a draft pick in return for retaining that free agent player.

As the offseason gets fully underway today, MLB's 30 teams are faced with a handful of other, smaller moves that need to be made independent of free agency.

The 60-day injured list goes away during the offseason, so teams must activate all players currently on the 60-day IL and get their 40-man rosters down to 40 players or less today.

That likely means that a number of players will be exposed to waivers today, though it's also possible teams with excess 40-man roster space could look to work out small trades with teams that need to clear space.