The 2026 season is near completion. While many teams are laser-focused on their final push to either reach the postseason or secure a critical first-round bye, others are already looking ahead to the offseason and the 2027 campaign (and beyond). Following this year\u2019s World Series, we\u2019ll of course have our annual Top 50 Free Agent list, complete with contract predictions and our staff\u2019s best guesses for where those 50 players will land. In the meantime, however, it\u2019s time for one final look at the top 10 of what\u2019s shaping up to be an admittedly underwhelming class.<\/p>\n
There is, of course, one big name atop the list and a new entry in the form of a standout Japanese slugger who\u2019s expected to be posted for major league teams this winter. A couple names on our final in-season addition of the Power Rankings have rebounded from shaky starts to the season, but other players have cooled after promising starts and fallen out of the top 10 entirely.<\/p>\n
As a reminder, these lists aren\u2019t strictly a ranking of the \u201cbest\u201d or most impactful free agents on the market. Both our Power Rankings and our annual Top 50 are ranked based on our best estimate of a player\u2019s earning power. For instance, Nick Martinez<\/a> has produced outstanding results for the Rays, but he\u2019s a 36-year-old righty (37 next summer) with a 92 mph fastball and a strikeout rate that\u2019s eight percentage points shy of the league average. He\u2019s not likely to command more than two years, so while he\u2019ll certainly slot into the middle of our eventual Top 50, he won\u2019t move beyond the Honorable Mention portion of this list \u2014 even if he has better results than some of the younger arms on the middle and back of the list. Those younger arms have paths to contracts of three or more years in length and should thus out-earn Martinez in total.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get into the final rundown of the top portion of an underwhelming class\u2026<\/p>\n 1. Tarik Skubal<\/a>, LHP, Dodgers<\/p>\n No surprise here. An elbow scope in May and eventual trade to the Dodgers will prevent Skubal from winning a third straight American League Cy Young, but on a rate basis, he\u2019s just as dominant as he\u2019s been in recent seasons. While Skubal had a few shaky outings after a remarkably quick return from an innovative \u201cNano-Needle\u201d procedure to remove a bone spur from his elbow, he\u2019s now sitting on a 2.70 ERA post-surgery \u2014 the exact same mark he had prior to that procedure. He\u2019s working on his fourth straight season with a strikeout rate north of 30% and a walk rate under 5%. That level of K\/BB dominance is a rarity for any pitcher in even one given season \u2014 let alone a run of four consecutive years.<\/p>\n Skubal has a legitimate claim to being the best and most reliably dominant pitcher on the entire planet. He\u2019s a capital-A \u201cAce\u201d in every sense of the word and would be on every team\u2019s short list for their preferred option if they could start any one pitcher in baseball in a must-win game. Skubal turns 30 in August. His trade to Los Angeles rendered him ineligible to receive a qualifying offer. He has a very real chance to command the largest contract ever given to a pitcher \u2014 possibly something north of $400MM in total.<\/p>\n Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a>\u2019s $325MM deal currently holds the record for pitcher contracts (not including two-way teammate Shohei Ohtani<\/a>). Most would consider it an upset if Skubal and agent Scott Boras don\u2019t handily top Yamamoto\u2019s guarantee. The $43.33MM AAV record shared by future Hall of Famers Justin Verlander<\/a> and Max Scherzer<\/a> should also be in play. Every big-payroll club in the sport is going to want Skubal, and some dark-horse clubs could be surprise entrants in the bidding, especially if Skubal is amenable to shorter-term, extreme-AAV deals.<\/p>\n 2. Teruaki Sato<\/a>, 3B\/OF, Hanshin Tigers (Japan\u2019s Nippon Professional Baseball)<\/p>\n While there aren\u2019t many \u2014 ok, there aren\u2019t any \u2014 prime-aged free agent bats enjoying strong seasons in Major League Baseball, that\u2019s not the case overseas. Twenty-seven-year-old Teruaki Sato is mashing his way toward a potential MVP award over in NPB. The Hanshin Tigers slugger is batting .315\/.393\/.618 with 35 homers, giving him a chance at reaching 40 homers for the second straight season.<\/p>\n There are warts to his game \u2014 many of which apply to former NPB star Munetaka Murakami<\/a>. While Sato doesn\u2019t strike out quite as much as Murakami did, his 26.9% clip this season is still quite high. His overall contact rate of just 66.6% is about 11 percentage points shy of the major league average, and he\u2019s displaying that tepid level of contact against pitchers with far lesser velocity than the ones he\u2019d encounter in Major League Baseball. Sato\u2019s 11.3% walk rate is a career-high and a strong mark, but it\u2019s also not close to the 14-17% marks Murakami posted on an annual basis while destroying Japan\u2019s top league. Sato has split his time between third base (his primary position) and right field. He\u2019s not considered a plus defender in either spot, however.<\/p>\n It\u2019s never easy to predict how the market will react to stars from Japan and South Korea. Murakami was a 25-year-old former MVP with 80-grade power, but there were enough concerns about his defense and contact ability that the market only produced a two-year deal \u2014 not the massive nine-figure deal many expected. Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> had concerns about his defense at third base, but his four-year, $64MM deal with the Blue Jays looks quite savvy for the team thus far. Giants center fielder Jung Hoo Lee<\/a> and Red Sox DH Masataka Yoshida<\/a>, meanwhile, dramatically exceeded expectations. It really only takes one team to fall in love with a player for that player to cash in.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a broad range of possible outcomes when it comes to Sato. He\u2019ll be one of the harder players to predict this winter, but we\u2019ll likely check in with various scouts who\u2019ve seen him play to try to ascertain just how the market might react. When we\u2019re talking about earning ceiling, however, it\u2019s hard to beat a 27-year-old MVP candidate in Japan who\u2019s approaching 80 homers to go along with a .296\/.368\/.597 batting line dating back to 2025. There aren\u2019t many viable nine-figure deal candidates on the market this winter, but Sato seems to have that kind of earning upside.<\/p>\n 3. Trevor Rogers<\/a>, LHP, Orioles<\/p>\n Rogers entered the season looking like one of the top arms on the market, and by mid-May he looked like a candidate for a one-year rebound deal. He\u2019s shaken off a poor start to fire 109 innings of 3.06 ERA ball dating back to early June. Along the way, Rogers has fanned 24.1% of opponents against a superlative 4.6% walk rate. He\u2019s now sitting on a respectable, if unspectacular 4.22 ERA. Dating back to last season, that gives the former No. 13 overall draft pick and 2021 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up 267 1\/3 innings of a 3.23 ERA performance with strong rate stats.<\/p>\n Rogers doesn\u2019t turn 29 until November. He\u2019s the one non-Skubal starter who has a real path to landing a five-year contract based on his age, overall 2025-26 performance, and his outstanding performance over the final few months of the season. He\u2019s a virtual lock to receive a qualifying offer and reject it. Eduardo Rodr\u00edguez<\/a>, Taijuan Walker<\/a> and Jameson Taillon<\/a> all landed between $68-80MM over four years when they were older than Rogers and coming off lesser two-year platforms. Rogers is better and younger than all of those arms. A deal north of $100MM isn\u2019t out of the question.<\/p>\n 4. Randy Arozarena<\/a>, OF, Mariners<\/p>\n Arozarena is putting the finishing touches on a sixth-straight 20-20 season. He\u2019s hitting .278\/.375\/.476 with 25 big flies, 23 steals, a 10% walk rate and a 21.4% strikeout rate. Both the walk rate and strikeout rate are better than average, albeit not by wide margins. Arozarena consistently makes hard contact at plus levels, and he\u2019s an aggressive baserunner who\u2019ll run into some outs but also stretch his share of singles into doubles.<\/p>\n The 2026 season is the best of Arozarena\u2019s already strong career. He\u2019s sporting the highest batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentages he\u2019s notched in any full major league season, but doing so while calling Seattle\u2019s pitcher-friendly T-Mobile Park home.<\/p>\n The only real knocks on Arozarena are his age and his defense. He\u2019s not old, but he\u2019ll be 32 in February. A look at MLBTR\u2019s Contract Tracker shows<\/a> that over the past decade, there have only been eight position players to command contracts of four or more years that start with their age-32 season (or older): Alex Bregman<\/a>, Kyle Schwarber<\/a>, Freddie Freeman<\/a>, Starling Marte<\/a>, DJ LeMahieu<\/a>, Josh Donaldson<\/a>, Lorenzo Cain<\/a> and Justin Turner<\/a>. Even if Arozarena can\u2019t add his name to that list, he\u2019s a better hitter and all-around player than Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> was upon signing for three years and $66MM at the same age. He\u2019s got a case for four years, but if it\u2019s \u201conly\u201d three, he should still top that Hern\u00e1ndez deal by a decent amount. He\u2019s going to receive a QO and reject it without hesitation.<\/p>\n 5. Seiya Suzuki<\/a>, OF, Cubs<\/p>\n Much of what I just wrote about Arozarena applies to Suzuki. He\u2019s already 32, although he just celebrated his birthday last month, so the 2027 campaign will also be his \u201cage-32\u201d season and not his age-33. He\u2019s enjoying a fourth consecutive 20-homer season and, unlike Arozarena, has topped 30 in the past (2025). Suzuki is a better defender who walks more often with more consistency, and he has a bit more power. It\u2019s actually surprising that Suzuki has noticeably better sprint speed between the two, as he\u2019s never topped 16 steals in a season and has just three this year, but he simply isn\u2019t as aggressive on the bases.<\/p>\n It\u2019s doubtful there\u2019s a consensus among MLB front offices as to whether Arozarena or Suzuki is the better long-term investment. They\u2019re both well above-average everyday corner outfielders right now with plus power and strong on-base skills. Both will reject qualifying offers. Both should handily exceed Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s three-year, $66MM deal. Both will face obstacles in reaching four years or more, but neither should have to settle for less than three. They\u2019re 1-A and 1-B among proven big league hitters in free agency this winter, and either could plausibly command something in the $70-100MM range.<\/p>\n 6. Freddy Peralta<\/a>, RHP, Rays<\/p>\n Peralta hasn\u2019t had the season for which he hoped, though he\u2019s enjoyed better results since being traded to the Rays. The fit with the Mets never seemed to pan out \u2014 one of the nearly countless things that didn\u2019t go the team\u2019s way out in Queens this year. After a decent start to the season, Peralta was shelled for 40 runs (34 earned) over his final nine starts and 41 2\/3 innings as a Met. By the time he was traded to Tampa Bay, he sported a career-worst 4.99 ERA.<\/p>\n Though Peralta\u2019s first start as a Ray was more of the same, he\u2019s righted the ship over the past six weeks. Peralta has yielded only two runs over his past 23 frames and has a 2.66 mark in 40 2\/3 innings across his past seven trips to the hill. He\u2019s not missing bats like he did in Milwaukee (19.5 K% in that stretch), but Peralta has significantly ramped up the use of his changeup with Tampa Bay and is enjoying strong results on that pitch in particular (in addition to better results on his lesser-used slider).<\/p>\n Interested teams are going to have to weigh his recent gains against his June\/July struggles with the Mets and try to determine which is the outlier. Peralta\u2019s track record is excellent, however, and it\u2019s not hard to think a team will believe his struggles with the Mets are the anomaly. Entering this season, Peralta had been so consistent that a team could bank on his durability and steady results; from 2022-25, there were only two individual months where Peralta had an ERA north of 4.50. This year, he rattled off three in a row before his recent turnaround. Interested parties could well look at that as the aberration.<\/p>\n Peralta should get two more regular-season starts to lower his ERA. They\u2019ll likely come against the Red Sox (in St. Petersburg) and the Yankees (in the Bronx) \u2014 not the easiest set of opponents. Good results could nudge his ERA into the 4.30 to 4.45 range, which wouldn\u2019t be great but is a far sight better than the 5.37 at which he peaked. A deep playoff run would help him prove those Mets struggles are behind him, and the trade to Tampa Bay means Peralta won\u2019t receive a QO. He could plausibly bet on himself on an opt-out-laden deal or, with a big enough finish, look to max out on the best long-term deal possible. Will he have enough time convince clubs to offer five years?<\/p>\n 7. Michael King<\/a>, RHP, Padres<\/p>\n King\u2019s best chances at a nine-figure deal dried up with last year\u2019s injury-marred season, but the opt-out-laden, three-year $75MM deal he signed this past offseason is a fine consolation prize. King has bounced back with 175 innings and a 3.03 ERA, putting to bed a good bit of the durability concern that surrounded him last winter. He also can\u2019t receive a QO this time around, as he rejected one in the 2025-26 offseason.<\/p>\n King has seen a modest 0.5 mph bump in his four-seamer and sinker velocity but isn\u2019t missing more bats. His 10.3% swinging-strike rate is right in line with last year\u2019s 10.4% mark. Both are down considerably from the 12% he posted in 2024. This year\u2019s 20.8% strikeout rate and 9.3% walk rate are both career-worst marks, though neither is terribly far from league average.<\/p>\n As with so many free agents in this year\u2019s class, age is a prominent factor for King. He\u2019s 31 now but will turn 32 next May. Nick Pivetta<\/a>, Blake Snell<\/a> and Jacob deGrom<\/a> are the only free agent starting pitchers who have commanded four guaranteed years on a contract that starts in their age-32 season (or older), as can be seen in MLBTR\u2019s Contract Tracker<\/a>. King will have a hard time adding his name to that list. That said, he\u2019s also very arguably a more desirable free agent now than he was last year when he received three years and $75MM. If he takes a similar or even slightly larger three-year deal this time around, he\u2019d still be locking in $100MM+ for his first four free agent years \u2014 not bad for a guy who didn\u2019t get his first chance at a permanent rotation job until his age-29 season.<\/p>\n 8. Ryan Jeffers<\/a>, C, Twins<\/p>\n A broken hamate bone interrupted a breakout year for Jeffers, but he\u2019s still making a case for a strong multi-year deal in free agency. The 29-year-old (30 next June) slugger entered play today batting .259\/.360\/.476 with 14 home runs, 18 doubles, a pair of triples, a 12.9% walk rate and just a 17.5% strikeout rate. By measure of wRC+, he\u2019s been 35% better than average at the plate. The standard catcher, meanwhile, has been about 10% worse than average.<\/p>\n Jeffers\u2019 batted-ball metrics have taken a hit since he returned from surgery to remove his fractured hamate hook. That\u2019s not a huge surprise \u2014 hamate injuries often sap a hitter\u2019s offense in the early stages of their return \u2014 but it does work against his free agent case. That said, Jeffers has still been a clearly above-average hitter since his return, and his 10.5% walk rate and 17.9% strikeout rate in that time indicate there\u2019s no significant downturn in his approach.<\/p>\n Jeffers isn\u2019t great defensively, particularly when it comes to throwing. He\u2019s thwarted only 18.2% of stolen base attempts against him across the past two seasons. He\u2019s decent when it comes to blocking pitches in the dirt. He graded as a poor framer early in his career but has been only a hair worse than average over the past two seasons. Jeffers has been better than average when it comes to successful ABS challenges this year as well.<\/p>\n There was substantial interest in Jeffers at the trade deadline, particularly from the Yankees. His post-injury form hasn\u2019t been quite as good as his pre-injury output, but this is a 29-year-old, Scott-Boras-repped catcher who\u2019s going to finish the season somewhere around 30% better than average in the batter\u2019s box. It\u2019s hard to imagine the Twins holding onto him and not making a qualifying offer. That could be tempting for Jeffers, but he should have enough appeal to command a three- or four-year deal in free agency. He\u2019s not going to command a top-of-the-market AAV for his position (around $23MM), but something in the $15-20MM per year range isn\u2019t out of the question.<\/p>\n 9. Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n<\/a>, LHP, Padres<\/p>\n Morej\u00f3n is overshadowed by bullpen-mate Mason Miller<\/a> when talking about the game\u2019s elite relievers, but he very much belongs in the conversation when talking about the 10-or-so best relief arms. The flamethrowing lefty is wrapping up a third straight sub-3.00 ERA season. He\u2019s one of just 23 qualified relievers with a 30% strikeout rate this year. Only 10 of those names have a walk rate south of 8%. Morej\u00f3n is one of them. His 59.3% ground-ball rate ranks seventh among relievers. The only relief pitcher in baseball with a better strikeout, walk and grounder rate than Morej\u00f3n is Philadelphia\u2019s Jhoan Duran<\/a>.<\/p>\n Morej\u00f3n\u2019s stuff is borderline untouchable. He ranks fifth in average four-seam velocity (99.3 mph) and third in average sinker velocity (99.5 mph). His 16.7% swinging-strike rate is the seventh-best mark in MLB. His 41.1% opponents\u2019 chase rate (on pitches outside the strike zone) is sixth-best. He\u2019d rank among the league leaders in saves if he were on another roster, but he instead has to settle for ranking among the league leaders in holds; his 26 rank are tied for sixth-most in the game, and he\u2019s chipped in three saves for good measure.<\/p>\n On top of his utter dominance, Morej\u00f3n has youth on his side. He won\u2019t turn 28 until February. Five-year deals for relievers are exceedingly rare, but Morej\u00f3n has a strong case to join Josh Hader<\/a> ($95MM), Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> ($102MM) and Robert Suarez<\/a> ($46MM) as the fourth reliever to achieve that feat in the past half decade (setting aside lower-cost deals for international free agents like Yariel Rodr\u00edguez<\/a> and Yuki Matsui<\/a>). Even that Suarez deal is generally an outlier; he had only one MLB season under his belt at that point. Morej\u00f3n is a prime-aged proven commodity who has a case to push close to or even beyond Tanner Scott<\/a>\u2019s $72MM guarantee.<\/p>\n 10. Brandon Lowe<\/a>, 2B, Pirates<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a banner year for Lowe \u2014 arguably the best of his career. He\u2019s sitting on 31 home runs at the moment \u2014 his second straight year with that total. He\u2019s not going to top his prior career-best mark of 39, but he\u2019s had a strong overall year at the plate with an improved walk rate, plus power and wildly improved defense at second base.<\/p>\n Lowe posted awful defensive grades in 2025, receiving brutal marks of -14 Defensive Runs Saved and -14 Outs Above Average. He\u2019d never been an especially strong defender, but he also had never struggled to anywhere near that level. It\u2019s the opposite in 2026. Lowe has incredibly swung the pendulum to the opposite extreme, garnering marks of +14 DRS and +14 OAA \u2014 a 28-point swing in the game\u2019s two most prominent publicly available defensive metrics.<\/p>\n The result is a season that\u2019s going to approach or exceed five wins above replacement. Lowe is batting .260\/.329\/.484. He\u2019s added 28 doubles and a triple to his 31 round-trippers. Even the perpetually low-payroll Pirates shouldn\u2019t have any real hesitation in making a qualifying offer, which Lowe will assuredly reject in pursuit of a multi-year deal. It\u2019s generally true that pure second basemen don\u2019t get paid, but most second basemen don\u2019t have this type of power. Rather than focus on his position, the market is going to \u2014 or at least should \u2014 treat Lowe as simply one of the best power hitters in the class. He\u2019ll be 33 early next July, so age isn\u2019t exactly on his side, but we\u2019ve seen Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>, Christian Walker<\/a>, Jos\u00e9 Abreu<\/a>, Carlos Santana<\/a>, Edwin Encarnaci\u00f3n<\/a> and Starling Marte<\/a> command $19-22MM AAVs on contracts of three years (four, in Marte\u2019s case) at this age or older. There\u2019s no reason Lowe shouldn\u2019t be able to reach the same level.<\/p>\n Honorable Mentions (listed alphabetically): Luis Arraez<\/a>, Jake Bauers<\/a>, David Bednar<\/a>, Bo Bichette<\/a>*, Jazz Chisholm Jr.<\/a>, Ty France<\/a>, Kevin Gausman<\/a>, Sonny Gray<\/a>, Foster Griffin<\/a>, Ian Happ<\/a>, Clay Holmes<\/a>, Shota Imanaga<\/a>, Hiromi Itoh<\/a> (NPB), Tyler Mahle<\/a>, Nick Martinez<\/a>, Casey Mize<\/a>, Kaima Taira<\/a> (NPB)<\/p>\n * = Bichette can opt out of the remaining two years and $84MM on his Mets contract. Were he to do so, he\u2019d be banking on a strong four-month finish overshadowing a terrible start to his Mets tenure. However, while there\u2019s a chance Bichette could secure more than $84MM in total, he\u2019s not likely to secure more than the $42MM he\u2019s owed next season in terms of 2027 salary. Since he can also opt out of his contract following the \u201927 season, we\u2019re operating under the assumption that he\u2019ll take a huge one-year payday next season, then opt out (and receive a $5MM buyout for doing so) and look to surpass that net $37MM when maxing out on the best long-term deal possible ahead of his age-30 season in 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 season is near completion. While many teams are laser-focused on their final push to either reach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-899784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899784","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=899784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}