This baseball offseason has provided so many distractions and diversions that we’ve neglected one of the hottest topics of recent winters.

Thanks to multiple manager searches and the sagas of the Braves, Shohei Ohtani and Giancarlo Stanton, the qualifying offer has been more forgotten than George Clooney’s portrayal of Batman.

It’s about time to bring this Hot Stove curiosity back on stage, though, and see whether it returns with a vengeance or, by virtue of its new parameters, winds up as kinder and gentler. The ramifications can run all the way into next winter’s Yankees vs. Dodgers financial slugfest.

Of the nine free agents who received the qualifying offer of a guaranteed, one-year, $17.4-million contract — they all rejected it — only one, Carlos Santana, has signed with a team. The first baseman left the Indians for a three-year, $60 million contract with the Phillies, who gave up their second-round pick in the 2018 amateur draft as well as $500,000 in international bonus pool money in the 2018-19 signing period. Since Santana procured more than $50 million, the Indians get a sandwich-round pick in next year’s draft.

Santana outperformed expectations in annual average value, if not necessarily years. And the Phillies, their compensation determined by their status as a revenue-sharing payor, actually paid a higher price than they would have a year ago, when such acquisition cost the draft pick but not the bonus-pool money.

Maybe it’ll be that simple the rest of the way for the remaining eight qualified free agents (Jake Arrieta, Lorenzo Cain, Alex Cobb, Wade Davis, Greg Holland, Lance Lynn and Mike Moustakas): The relaxed penalties for which the players pushed will result in less pain and more pleasure.

However, just as the owners hoped, the hurdles haven’t been cleared altogether. You need only look at the Giants as evidence.

The Giants plummeted from a 2016 postseason berth to a National League-worst 64-98 record. With Madison Bumgarner still anchoring their starting rotation, they’re hoping to climb right back into contention. Cain and Moustakas both look like excellent fits in Northern California. Yet because their 2017 payroll exceeded the luxury-tax threshold of $195 million, signing a qualified free agent would cost them a second- and fifth-round pick plus $1 million in the bonus pool.

That’s why executive vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean told San Francisco reporters this past week, when asked about signing a qualified free agent, “If you’re asking me personally, my vote would be a no, being that we wouldn’t want to get involved with somebody like that.”

Sabean, bless his honesty, isn’t the only person who thinks the new QO rules will still have a dragging effect on those subject to it.

“I think it will help determine what kind of teams go after them,” a general manager said on the condition of anonymity. “There won’t be any guys who wait as long as Kendrys Morales or Stephen Drew (both of whom sat out until the middle of the 2014 season because clubs wouldn’t give up draft picks for them), but some guys will get hurt by it. And next year, I bet some guys accept the qualifying offer.”

The old system eventually led to that fate for a few, including Neil Walker with the Mets a year ago.

On the other hand, “There’s a great player out there [who] doesn’t cost anybody any draft picks in J.D. Martinez,” Scott Boras noted in a telephone interview Friday. “This is more about the position of the market.”

Boras represents Arrieta, Holland, Hosmer and Moustakas in addition to Martinez, who couldn’t get a qualifying offer because he was traded in the middle of last season.

The Yankees and Dodgers both figure to pass on this group because they’re striving to not pay the luxury tax in 2018. The absence of those twin titans could depress the commitments this Great Eight obtains, which in turn would not move the needle as the Yankees and Dodgers prepare to spend generously for next year’s highly enticing free-agent crop headlined by Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.

Or maybe Santana will be a trailblazer in turning the QO into a relic. If spring training arrives and we’ve forgotten altogether about this, then the players can declare victory over an issue that had annoyed them greatly.