Baltimore Orioles: SP Trevor Rogers (Age: 28)<\/p>\n
One of the few no-doubt qualifying offer candidates on the market this winter, Rogers had a 4.03 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 157 strikeouts in 169.2 innings. Given the glaring need for starting pitching, the O’s can’t afford to lose arguably their best arm, so re-signing him should be a top priority.<\/p>\n
Boston Red Sox: SP Sonny Gray (Age: 36)<\/p>\n
Gray is a lock to decline his end of a $30 million mutual option in favor of a $10 million buyout. After going 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 149 strikeouts in 169.0 innings, he should have no problem finding more guaranteed money. A healthy Garrett Crochet can replace him atop the Red Sox rotation, with Payton Tolle, Ranger Su\u00e1rez, Jake Bennett and Brayan Bello behind him.<\/p>\n
New York Yankees: RP David Bednar (Age: 31)<\/p>\n
Jazz Chisholm Jr. (137 G, 97 OPS+, 1.7 WAR) and Trent Grisham (121 G, 95 OPS+, 0.6 WAR) were the top upcoming free agents on the Yankees roster entering the season, but both had down years. Instead, Bednar (64 G, 35 SV, 2.47 ERA, 9.9 K\/9) looks like the most impactful potential departure. He would be difficult to replace at the back of the Yankees bullpen.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Rays: SP Nick Martinez (Age: 36)<\/p>\n
Freddy Peralta probably ends up landing the bigger contract given his age and track record, but Martinez is the team’s top free agent based on this year’s production. The 36-year-old went 15-6 with a 3.10 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 109 strikeouts in 180.0 innings, and both ends of his $20 million mutual option might get declined given Tampa Bay’s financial limitations. The Rays don’t pay for a career year at 36. They look for the next candidate to deliver one.<\/p>\n
Toronto Blue Jays: SP Shane Bieber (Age: 31)<\/p>\n
Forearm fatigue sidelined Bieber until June 23. He made just 11 starts before shoulder inflammation ended his season at the end of August, but he had a 2.59 ERA over 24.1 innings in his final four starts before hitting the shelf. At 31 years old, he represents a quality buy-low target, but the Blue Jays might be hunting for more stability as they rebuild their staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baltimore Orioles: SP Trevor Rogers (Age: 28) One of the few no-doubt qualifying offer candidates on the market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-919553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}