{"id":290905,"date":"2025-11-18T11:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290905\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T11:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:36:12","slug":"the-mlb-2025-26-free-agency-tier-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290905\/","title":{"rendered":"The MLB 2025-26 Free Agency Tier List"},"content":{"rendered":"

MLB<\/a>MLB<\/a>Josh Naylor\u2019s off the board. Where do the rest of baseball\u2019s stars fit in the offseason hierarchy?\u00a0\"\"Getty Images\/Ringer illustration\"\"<\/a>By Anthony Dabbundo<\/a>Nov. 18, 11:20 am UTC \u2022 10 min<\/p>\n

Another hot stove season is here, which means it\u2019s time once again for baseball\u2019s favorite tradition\u2014pretending the stove is hot, even when the pilot light is struggling to ignite it properly. MLB free agency is traditionally more of a lukewarm simmer compared to the offseasons of the NFL and NBA.<\/p>\n

Even still, it\u2019s worth turning on those tweet notifications for your favorite baseball newsbreakers. Otherwise, you\u2019d have missed that the Mariners handed out the first multiyear contract of the offseason on Sunday when they signed first baseman Josh Naylor to a five-year deal worth $92.5 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seattle nabbed Naylor at the trade deadline, and he was a key contributor in their division title and playoff run. His metrics may not stand out on a Baseball Savant chart, but his excellent eye and ability to put bat to ball were very much needed in a strikeout-prone Mariners lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Naylor isn\u2019t a Tier 1 headliner, but his signing helps set the early contours of this market. If teams are staking long-term money on players like him\u2014guys who are contact heavy, reliable, and still in their primes\u2014that could shape how the rest of the free agent tiers unfold over the next few months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where The Ringer\u2019s 2025-26 MLB free agency tier list comes in. We\u2019ll take a level-by-level look at the main prize of the winter, the players who fit somewhere in the middle, and the guys who could go down as undervalued options.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Getty ImagesThe Market Maker\u00a0Kyle Tucker, OF (28)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to knock the consistency of Tucker. Few players in the sport have been as reliably productive over the past half decade, and he\u2019s poised to be paid accordingly. Tucker has produced at least 4.2 fWAR every season since 2021. His year-over-year steadiness and well-rounded skill set mean there\u2019s a tendency to label him as a \u201chigh-floor\u201d guy.<\/p>\n

Tucker posts above-average walk and strikeout rates, plays generally reliable defense, and has hit 20 or more home runs in five straight seasons. Even his relative downturn in 2025 came with an asterisk, courtesy of the June hand fracture that rattled his normally steady production.<\/p>\n

For all the things Tucker does well, his ceiling is still something of an enigma. He doesn\u2019t have one singular, elite trait\u2014no highlight-reel exit velocity, no elite sprint speed, and his prior Gold Glove\u2013level defense has declined a bit. He\u2019s a star because he\u2019s good at everything, not dominant at one thing. And that\u2019s where the risk exists. If his quality of play slips even a little as he moves into his 30s, the megadeal he\u2019s about to sign could take on some water very quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For now, though, Tucker remains the marquee free agent on the market. His deal is what most people will argue about\u2014the number of years he should get, the amount of dollars he should earn. He won\u2019t be the one to make a ton of flashy plays, but he\u2019s consistent over the long grind of an MLB season, and maybe an MLB career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Steve Russell\/Toronto Star via Getty ImagesThe \u201cAre You Sure?\u201d TierBo Bichette, INF (27)
Kyle Schwarber, DH (32)<\/p>\n

After Tucker, the next two top hitters come with significant risks in the medium term. Both are likely to receive four-year contracts at a minimum. Fresh off his World Series heroics, Bichette might be the riskiest big-ticket bet of the entire offseason. The Athletic projected his contract would be<\/a> for seven years and $189 million, a number that assumes the hitter from 2021-23 is still lurking somewhere in there. Bichette\u2019s ability to put the barrel on the ball on almost any pitch remains elite, but his lower-body injuries from 2024 and 2025 have clearly taken a toll on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His speed has dipped, his defense cratered over the past year, and the margin for error in his offensive profile is thinner than most people realize. Bichette has never been a true power hitter\u2014just someone who hits more homers than the average middle infielder\u2014and his below-average bat speed and high chase rate raise real questions about how long the power will stick.<\/p>\n

When he\u2019s on the field, Bichette is almost guaranteed to hit for average. The real uncertainty is everything around that. What position will he play? How well will he play it? And how long will his offense be enough to outweigh the erosion of the tools that made him a star in the first place?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Schwarber\u2019s profile, meanwhile, makes him the perfect embodiment of modern baseball. He has a superb eye and walks a ton, and he\u2019s completely abandoned the idea of playing the field. Most importantly: He hits dingers. Since the start of 2021, only Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge have hit more home runs<\/a> than Schwarber. He\u2019s the ultimate slugger, and he even made real progress against lefties<\/a> on his way to a career year in 2025. Few hitters in the league swing the bat faster or hit the baseball harder, and those are the types of traits you\u2019d feel comfortable betting on for at least a couple more seasons.<\/p>\n

But as an extremely limited fielder, Schwarber comes with a big caveat. Any team that signs him is effectively committing to a full-time designated hitter for the next four-plus years. The Phillies have lived that reality for two and a half seasons and remain the favorites to bring him back, but even for them, it\u2019s a bold bet to stack him onto an already aging core. It\u2019s less a question of what Schwarber will give you and more a question of whether your roster can absorb his very specific shape.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lucas Casel\/MLB Photos via Getty ImagesThe Schrodinger\u2019s Stars Tier\u00a0Alex Bregman, INF (31)
Pete Alonso, 1B (30)
Cody Bellinger, OF (30)<\/p>\n

All three players in this tier have demonstrated incredible peaks in their careers, but those highs appear to be in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bregman\u2019s two best seasons came in 2018 and 2019, when he produced a combined 16.2 fWAR, second only to Mike Trout. His year-by-year fWAR has declined every season since 2021, and while he remains a reliable defender at third base with excellent plate discipline, his hitting quality won\u2019t improve in his 30s. Bregman should remain a decent-to-good hitter for a few more years, but his superstar days are probably behind him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bellinger won NL MVP in 2019 but hasn\u2019t been able to find the same level of power in his bat since. He\u2019s recovered from almost unplayable levels in 2021 and 2022 to produce three consecutive quality seasons, and he\u2019s proved he can be an excellent corner outfielder, even if he\u2019s not great in center anymore. Bellinger will probably get the longest contract of the three because of the combination of his age and athleticism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Mets were not willing to give Alonso a long-term contract last offseason, which is part of the reason he finds himself in this tier. You can look at his production and sell yourself on the idea that he\u2019s a star player worth investing in long term. He certainly has the power to warrant being in the middle of any championship-contending lineup. But like Schwarber, you have to understand what you\u2019re committing to. While Alonso was durable and played every game in 2024 and 2025, he was one of the worst fielders in baseball<\/a> at first base and will probably be a full-time designated hitter by 2027. He\u2019s loved by the fans in New York because of his late-2024 heroics and his production last season, but the front office seems to view him differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Getty ImagesThe \u201cGood Pitching Is Hard to Find These Days\u201d TierFramber Valdez, LHP (31)
Dylan Cease, RHP (29)
Ranger Su\u00e1rez, LHP (30)
Zac Gallen, RHP (30)<\/p>\n

Valdez struggled down the stretch in 2025\u2014a controversy<\/a> arose when he intentionally crossed up his catcher\u2014but he remains the top pitcher on the free agent market. Valdez has pitched the fifth-most innings in baseball since 2021, establishing himself as a top-of-the-rotation stalwart. He also has the highest ground-ball rate of any starting pitcher in baseball at 61.6 percent. Valdez has never relied on elite velocity or dominant strikeout rates to pitch effectively, so you could bet on his skills to translate into his mid-30s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cease\u2019s year-to-year variance is as high as that of any top-end starter in MLB. Based on his 2022 and 2024 seasons, you\u2019d consider him one of the 10 best starters in the game. But if you watched odd-year Cease, you\u2019d be left pulling your hair out in frustration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dylan Cease ERA by Year<\/p>\n

YearERA20222.2020234.5820243.4720254.55<\/p>\n

One certainty with Cease is the punch-outs: He has 86 more strikeouts than any other MLB pitcher since the start of 2022. What happens with everything else\u2014mostly how he refines his command and limits hard contact\u2014will define how his contract ages. Cease will certainly get paid, but if Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla couldn\u2019t get a consistent ace out of Cease, the yo-yo version might just be who he is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Su\u00e1rez is a modern-day finesse pitcher. He has a 1.48 ERA in 42.2 playoff innings despite his fastball rarely reaching 93 mph. Even last season, when he was regularly throwing his heater at or below 90 mph, he befuddled MLB hitters and finished as one of the top pitchers in the National League. As front offices increasingly chase velocity, Su\u00e1rez is the exception to the norm. He pitches with all the craft of a 15-year MLB veteran, and his deep arsenal resembles that of a pitcher in a different era of the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not a 200-inning-per-year pitcher, and he won\u2019t dazzle with strikeouts. That makes him a risky bet in free agency\u2014what happens if the fastball velocity falls further?\u2014but Su\u00e1rez has been perennially underrated his entire career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gallen probably wishes he had hit free agency one year earlier. The Arizona right-hander saw a drop-off in virtually every pitching metric in 2025. His ERA jumped more than a full run, and it was accompanied by fewer strikeouts, more walks, and more homers. Will there be a front office that treats the down year in 2025 as an aberration? Or will he be viewed as a diminished pitcher who missed his chance to fully cash in on an incredible 2022-24 run?<\/p>\n

\"\"Getty ImagesThe True Wild CardsMunetaka Murakami, INF (25)
Tatsuya Imai, RHP (27)
Eugenio Su\u00e1rez, 3B (34)
Michael King, RHP (30)
Shota Imanaga, LHP (32)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because 2025 became the year of the splitter<\/a> in baseball, there will be considerable interest in Japanese starter Tatsuya Imai. The right-hander refined his command in recent seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball and now comes to America in the wake of his countrymen Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga. Imai isn\u2019t exactly projected to be an ace like Yamamoto was (and has become), but he\u2019s much younger than Imanaga, who is also a free agent this winter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cubs declined to extend Imanaga on a three-year, $57 million deal, which suggests they have some doubts about how he\u2019ll pitch the next few years. Imanaga now hits the free agent market with an interesting question attached to him. Did the Cubs know something or see something in him that they didn\u2019t like? Or is this a cost-cutting opportunity? Chicago is short on quality pitching, and it hampered them in the playoffs this October, which makes the decision to cut bait all the more interesting. Imanaga did have a serious home run issue in 2025, and his strikeout rate dipped by 4.5 percentage points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Imai is the top Japanese pitcher on the market, Murakami is the top Japanese hitter. His exit velocities in Japan were seriously impressive, and his raw power should translate to the big leagues immediately. His defensive limitations at third base and his lack of contact hitting could become issues for him, though, as he adjusts to the higher level of MLB pitching and defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eugenio Su\u00e1rez was seen as the biggest prize going into the trade deadline, but he ended up not even being the Mariners\u2019 best acquisition. (That would be Naylor.) The second half of his 2025 season is a cautionary tale for whichever front office offers a multiyear deal to the 34-year-old slugger. Su\u00e1rez had a .682 OPS during his time in Seattle, and he was subpar as a third baseman, too. At this point in his career, he\u2019s best deployed as a designated hitter who can occasionally play third base. He\u2019ll probably hit a bunch of dingers again, but if it\u2019s just dingers with limited on-base skills and defense, that profile will get risky in a hurry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like Gallen, King hit free agency one year too late. An injury-riddled 2025 season meant that he threw only 73 innings. It\u2019s not a great look for King that all of these injuries came immediately after his first full season as a starter in 2024. King was one of the best starters in baseball down the stretch run of the 2024 season, but he hasn\u2019t proved he can put together back-to-back healthy seasons as a starter. He\u2019s one of the top injury risks of the winter, but he also has the top-end stuff to be a quality second starter. I suspect his deal won\u2019t be long, but as mentioned above, good starting pitching is hard to find these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Honorable Mentions\u00a0<\/p>\n

Relievers can be tricky to assess correctly, but there are three top-tier pitchers on the market. Edwin Diaz is a dominant closer with few concerns and red flags. Devin Williams and Ryan Helsley (look away, New York baseball fans) have nasty stuff and will generate plenty of market interest. At this point, so many people have written about how Williams and Helsley are obvious buy-low reclamation candidates that this discourse has become the front-runner for \u201cmost overused commentary of the offseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naylor was the first major domino to fall this offseason, and without a Juan Soto\u2013like figure sucking up all of the oxygen at the top of the market, we could see the stove heat up earlier than usual. Overall, it\u2019s a deeper free agent class than last winter\u2019s, but it\u2019s not without its fair share of land mines, wild cards, and risks. May the best GM win.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anthony Dabbundo<\/p>\n

<\/a>Anthony Dabbundo is a sports betting writer and podcast host featured on The Ringer Gambling Show, mostly concentrating on the NFL and soccer (he\u2019s a tortured Spurs supporter). Plus, he\u2019s a massive Phillies fan and can be heard talking baseball on The Ringer\u2019s Philly Special. Also: Go Orange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLBMLBJosh Naylor\u2019s off the board. Where do the rest of baseball\u2019s stars fit in the offseason hierarchy?\u00a0Getty Images\/Ringer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-290905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}