{"id":311123,"date":"2025-11-24T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/311123\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:38:10","slug":"most-popular-choices-from-mlbtrs-free-agent-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/311123\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Popular Choices From MLBTR’s Free Agent Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entries for MLB Trade Rumors\u2019 annual Free Agent Prediction Contest<\/a> closed on November 13, with 4,604 different readers submitting their choice of landing spot for each of the offseason\u2019s top 50 free agents<\/a>. This year, we\u2019re going to provide another fun resource for reference purposes \u2014 which teams were the most popular choices for each of the 50 players.<\/p>\n

As you might expect, the bigger-spending teams got a lot of attention, though 21 of the 30 teams were the top choice for at least one free agent. (The Rockies, Cardinals, Pirates, Nationals, Astros, White Sox, Guardians, Royals, and Twins were the only teams not listed as a top choice.) Of the six players who have already signed, the plurality or majority of contestants correctly identified that Josh Naylor, Raisel Iglesias, and the qualifying offer-accepting quartet of Brandon Woodruff, Trent Grisham, Shota Imanaga, and Gleyber Torres would remain with their 2025 teams.<\/p>\n

The most popular choice of all 50 players was Bo Bichette returning to the Blue Jays, with 81.5% of contestants predicting a reunion. This narrowly edged out Kyle Schwarber (79.9%) and J.T. Realmuto (76.1%) re-signing with Philadelphia, as readers are confident that the Phillies will retain those two veteran bats, but there is far less of a consensus about the chances of Ranger Suarez (13.2%) returning to Philly. Eight percent of readers predict Ryan Helsley to the Marlins, which represented the lowest top choice of any player in the top 50.<\/p>\n

Kyle Tucker<\/a>: Dodgers (39.9%), Yankees (17.8%)
\nBo Bichette<\/a>: Blue Jays (81.5%)
\nDylan Cease<\/a>: Red Sox (20.9%), Cubs (17%), Mets (13.9%)
\nMunetaka Murakami<\/a>: Mets (20.3%), Mariners (17.4%), Dodgers (16.7%)
\nAlex Bregman<\/a>: Red Sox (37.3%), Tigers (30.3%)
\nFramber Valdez<\/a>: Giants (18.7%), Mets (14.2%), Orioles (10.2%), Cubs (9.8%)
\nTatsuya Imai<\/a>: Dodgers (20.2%), Mets (13.7%), Giants (12.7%), Cubs (12.6%)
\nCody Bellinger<\/a>: Yankees (61.2%)
\nKyle Schwarber<\/a>: Phillies (79.9%)
\nRanger Suarez<\/a>: Blue Jays (13.2%), Cubs (12.7%), Phillies (12.3%)
\nPete Alonso<\/a>: Mets (35.8%), Red Sox (29.6%)
\nJosh Naylor<\/a>: Mariners (72.6%)
\nEdwin Diaz<\/a>: Mets (38.1%), Dodgers (23.2%), Yankees (10.2%)
\nMichael King<\/a>: Orioles (14.5%), Padres (12.3%), Yankees (11.8%)
\nZac Gallen<\/a>: Diamondbacks (26.3%), Giants (10.4%), Angels (8.1%)
\nDevin Williams<\/a>: Dodgers (23.3%), Mets (9%)
\nBrandon Woodruff<\/a>: Brewers (30.3%), Mets (18.4%)
\nTrent Grisham<\/a>: Yankees (25.9%), Angels (13.2%)
\nKazuma Okamoto<\/a>: Dodgers (11.6%), Padres (10.9%), Mariners (10%), Angels (9.9%),
\nEugenio Suarez<\/a>: Mariners (18.7%), Reds (17.5%)
\nRobert Suarez<\/a>: Dodgers (15.7%), Mets (13.7%), Blue Jays (7%)
\nShota Imanaga<\/a>: Cubs (22.1%), Angels (11.6%)
\nJorge Polanco<\/a>: Mariners (37.7%), Royals (7.8%)
\nChris Bassitt<\/a>: Blue Jays (30.8%), Braves (15.7%)
\nMerrill Kelly<\/a>: Diamondbacks (38.5%), Rangers (7.3%)
\nBrad Keller<\/a>: Cubs (15.6%), Braves (12.2%), Yankees (11.6%)
\nLucas Giolito<\/a>: Red Sox (21.1%), Orioles (9.6%)
\nHa-Seong Kim<\/a>: Braves (45.4%)
\nJ.T. Realmuto<\/a>: Phillies (76.1%)
\nRyan O\u2019Hearn<\/a>: Marlins (18%), Padres (8.4%)
\nHarrison Bader<\/a>: Phillies (15.6%), Royals (11.9%), Guardians (8.8%)
\nRaisel Iglesias<\/a>: Braves (24.3%)
\nNick Martinez<\/a>: Reds (9.6%), Padres (8.7%)
\nLuis Arraez<\/a>: Rangers (12.2%), Padres (9.1%), Angels (7.4%)
\nZack Littell<\/a>: Angels (12.9%)
\nRyan Helsley<\/a>: Marlins (8%)
\nGleyber Torres<\/a>: Tigers (59.4%)
\nJustin Verlander<\/a>: Tigers (29.1%), Astros (18.2%), Giants (18.2%)
\nCody Ponce<\/a>: Brewers (11%), Cardinals (10.1%)
\nKyle Finnegan<\/a>: Tigers (28.1%)
\nLuke Weaver<\/a>: Yankees (17.4%), Cubs (9%)
\nTyler Rogers<\/a>: Mets (16.1%), Orioles (13.2%), Giants (13.1%)
\nSeranthony Dominguez<\/a>: Blue Jays (25%)
\nPete Fairbanks<\/a>: Dodgers (12.9%), Cubs (9.3%)
\nGregory Soto<\/a>: Blue Jays (14.3%)
\nEmilio Pagan<\/a>: Reds (28.8%)
\nTyler Mahle<\/a>: Athletics (8.9%), Rangers (8.5%)
\nMax Scherzer<\/a>: Blue Jays (33.2%), Giants (14.4%), Tigers (11.9%)
\nVictor Caratini<\/a>: Rays (22.3%), Astros (11.9%)
\nWilli Castro<\/a>: Padres (10.6%)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entries for MLB Trade Rumors\u2019 annual Free Agent Prediction Contest closed on November 13, with 4,604 different readers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-311123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}