Is your favorite team looking for a frontline starting pitcher? A dominant reliever? A big bopper? A Gold Glove outfielder? No matter the need, there are quality players who can help.
With Yamamoto’s decision likely to spark increased activity in free agency, now is a good time to take stock of the market and see which types of players are still available.
Here is a breakdown of the top remaining free agents.
The teams that lost out on Yamamoto could immediately pivot to these pitchers to upgrade their starting rotation. Snell is the head of the class here after taking home his second Cy Young Award this year. Despite leading the Majors in walks, he recorded an MLB-best 2.25 ERA and struck out 234 batters over 180 innings for the Padres. However, it’s worth noting that Snell, 31, posted an unremarkable 104 ERA+ from 2019-22 and never reached 130 innings in any season.
Montgomery provided a huge lift to the Rangers after coming over from St. Louis at the Trade Deadline. He registered a 2.83 ERA across 98 2/3 innings, postseason included, to help Texas capture its first World Series championship. Imanaga doesn’t have Yamamoto’s ceiling, but the 30-year-old profiles as a solid No. 2 or No. 3 starter. In 2023, he had a career-best 10.6 K/9 rate and walked only 24 batters through 148 innings for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.
This past season was a tale of two halves for Stroman and Giolito. After a stellar first few months, both veterans faltered in the second half. Stroman, who earned his second All-Star selection, had a 9.11 ERA in July before missing six weeks due to hip and rib injuries. Giolito served up 21 home runs over his final 12 starts, split evenly with the Angels and Guardians. Yet he is just a few years removed from a string of seasons in which he earned Cy Young votes.
The 30-year-old Montas is perhaps the one pitcher in this group with the potential to break into the next tier of starters at this point. He missed all but one game in 2023 after undergoing right shoulder surgery and finished his Yankees tenure with a 6.15 ERA over nine appearances, but the right-hander was a borderline ace for the A’s prior to joining New York. Montas posted a 3.30 ERA with a 9.8 K/9 and a 2.6 BB/9 over 291 2/3 innings for Oakland across 2021-22.
One year after Edwin Díaz set a record for the largest contract ever signed by a reliever ($102 million over five years with the Mets), Hader could break it. The left-hander is by far the best available closer on the market, having bounced back from a rocky 2022 season by posting a 1.28 ERA with 33 saves and 85 K’s over 56 1/3 innings in ‘23.
Entering his age-30 season, Hader has long been one of the top bullpen arms in the Majors, earning five All-Star selections, winning three Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year Awards and notching a lifetime 2.50 ERA with an eye-popping 15.0 K/9 over seven seasons with the Brewers and Padres. Opponents have posted a mere .156/.253/.291 slash line against the southpaw during his career.
Not every team has the appetite to add a reliever on what could be a record contract, but there are other late-inning options available for clubs that aren’t in the market for Hader.
Neris, who has closing experience from his time with the Phillies, is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, posting a 1.71 ERA with 31 holds and 77 K’s over 68 1/3 innings. Chapman can be shaky at times as his command comes and goes, but he has 321 career saves and ranked in the 99th percentile or better in average fastball velocity, expected batting average, whiff rate and strikeout rate in 2023. Hicks, whose velocity rivals Chapman’s, finally stayed healthy this past season and harnessed his electric stuff to post a career-high 11.1 K/9 with a 3.29 ERA over 65 2/3 innings. He’s still just 27 years old. Robertson, who will turn 39 in April, struggled following a trade to the Marlins in July, but he had a 2.05 ERA with 14 saves for the Mets before the trade after posting a 2.40 ERA with 20 saves the previous year.
Then there’s Stephenson, arguably the most intriguing of all of these bullpen arms despite his career 4.64 ERA for four teams in eight seasons. Traded from the Pirates to the Rays in June, the 30-year-old tweaked his arsenal and unlocked a new level of dominance, notching a 2.35 ERA, a 0.68 WHIP and a 60-to-8 K/BB ratio over 38 1/3 innings in a Tampa Bay uniform.
The top of the position-player market is rather thin, which should lead to a lot of interest in these two athletic power hitters. After a couple of injury-plagued seasons, Bellinger won National League Comeback Player of the Year honors this year, his first with the Cubs. He slashed .307/.356/.525 with 26 home runs and 20 steals, showcasing the talent that helped him take home the NL MVP Award in 2019 with the Dodgers. The 28-year-old also brings quality defense in center field; he has recorded 11 outs above average at the position since the beginning of 2022.
Chapman continued to be rock solid at the hot corner as he received his fourth Gold Glove in the past six seasons. The right-handed slugger got off to a blazing-hot start at the plate, leading all hitters with a 1.152 OPS during the season’s first full month. But after April 30, Chapman had a .659 OPS, 84 wRC+ and a 29.8% strikeout rate. His 17 homers were his fewest in a full season. On the bright side, Chapman’s 56.2% hard-hit rate trailed only Aaron Judge among qualified hitters, and his 17.1% barrel rate was bested by only Judge, Ohtani and Yordan Alvarez.
Teams looking to add a jolt to their lineups have a handful of options from which to choose. Martinez (33 HR, .572 SLG) and Soler (36 HR, .512 SLG) both reached the 30-homer plateau in 2023, and Hoskins did it the year prior before missing all of last season with a torn ACL. Duvall played fewer than 100 games this past season. But when healthy, he was a force, producing 21 homers with a .531 slugging percentage over 92 games.
Hernández’s slugging percentage (.435) decreased for the third straight year, but he still finished with 26 homers and 93 RBIs. Getting away from Seattle’s pitcher-friendly park could lead to a production boost for the right-handed slugger, who had an .830 OPS on the road in 2023.
The market has no shortage of defensively gifted center fielders, with this trio combining for six Gold Glove Awards — four of them by Kiermaier, who may go down as one of the best defensive outfielders of all time. Kiermaier ranked second among outfielders with +13 outs above average in 2023, while Bader and Taylor tied for seventh with +9 OAA.
None of these players is especially potent with the bat, though Taylor did hit a career-high 21 homers in 2023, while Kiermaier posted a slightly above-average OPS+ (104). Bader had a 114 OPS+ across 2020-21, but he has slipped to 77 over the past two years.
Kershaw and Woodruff are both recovering from shoulder surgery and could miss most or all of 2024, but their track records make them intriguing options nonetheless. Kershaw may be far removed from his heyday as a perennial Cy Young contender, but he has remained eminently successful in his twilight years. In 46 starts over the past two years, the left-hander has posted a 2.37 ERA with a 4.35 K/BB ratio. Woodruff has been one of the best pitchers in the NL in his own right across the past five seasons, recording a 2.93 ERA with a 4.79 K/BB ratio in 103 starts.
Clubs could look to sign either pitcher to a two-year deal with the hope that he’ll make a late-season return in 2024 and be ready to go full throttle in ’25.
Although Pederson had some rather pedestrian numbers this year (.235 average, 15 homers in 358 at-bats) his hard-hit rate increased for the fifth straight year, up to a career-best 52.2%, tied for 11th in the Majors. He also had a healthy 12.1% barrel rate.
Injuries are a common occurrence with Belt — his 103 games in 2023 were a four-year high — but he remains a productive lefty bat. He finished with 19 homers and a 136 OPS+ this past season. His 44.5% sweet-spot rate ranked third among all hitters with at least 400 plate appearances. Turner bopped 23 dingers during his age-38 season with the Red Sox and continues to have strong plate discipline. That includes whiff, strikeout and chase rates that were all above the 70th percentile last season.
