TORONTO — Sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion have rejected qualifying offers from the Toronto Blue Jays.

They had one week to decide whether to accept or decline the one-year offer worth US$17.2 million. When a player declines a qualifying offer and signs elsewhere as a free agent, his former team receives draft pick compensation.

Of the 10 free agents who received qualifying offers, only Jeremy Hellickson of the Philadelphia Phillies and Neil Walker of the New York Mets chose to accept, the Major League Baseball Players Association said Monday in a statement.

Encarnacion, 33, had 42 homers and 127 RBIs last season while Bautista, 36, hit 22 homers and had 69 RBIs in an injury-plagued campaign. Neither player was expected to accept the qualifying offer.

Other free agents who did not accept offers from their former teams by Monday's 5 p.m. EST deadline included Yoenis Cespedes (Mets), Ian Desmond (Rangers), Dexter Fowler (Cubs), Mark Trumbo (Orioles), Kenley Jansen (Dodgers) and Justin Turner (Dodgers).

Walker and Hellickson are signed players with Monday's decisions and could be eligible for free agency again after next season.

"Happy to say I'm back in Orange and Blue for 2017!! Let's go Mets!" Walker tweeted on Monday.

The Mets acquired Walker in a trade with Pittsburgh last December. He hit .282 with 23 homers and 55 RBIs in 113 games with New York before his season was cut short by back surgery.

The 31-year-old Walker, a first-round pick in the 2004 amateur draft, broke into the majors with the Pirates in 2009 and is a .273 hitter with 116 homers and 473 RBIs in 949 career games.

Hellickson was traded from Arizona to Philadelphia last November. The 29-year-old right-hander went 12-10 with a 3.71 ERA in 32 starts for the lowly Phillies this year.

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With files from The Associated Press.