{"id":450412,"date":"2026-02-05T11:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T11:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/450412\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T11:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T11:35:09","slug":"mlbs-all-free-agent-team-building-a-surprisingly-good-club-a-week-before-spring-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/450412\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB\u2019s All-Free Agent team: Building a surprisingly good club a week before spring training"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s February, pitchers and catchers report to spring training in a less than a week, and amidst a flurry of free agent activity Wednesday, the Big Board\u2019s<\/a> best remaining pitcher and the overall top arm on the market, Framber Valdez, finally found a new team.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question the free agent market has been picked apart \u2014 especially up the middle and in the bullpen \u2014 but there are notable players still waiting for a contract, including some veteran outfielders, a few utility infielders, and enough viable starting pitchers to build a pretty decent rotation from scratch.<\/p>\n

To take stock of the free agent market one last time, here\u2019s an All-Free Agent team of unsigned players who might be scrambling to find an apartment within a few weeks.<\/p>\n

Relatively deep at first<\/p>\n

First base is probably the market\u2019s deepest position at this point, and it was even deeper a few days ago before Luis Arraez and Eugenio Su\u00e1rez signed. Hoskins and Ozuna are the last position players remaining from our Big Board, with Hoskins a potential everyday option at first base (he got off to a strong start last season, but faded in June and then got hurt). Carlos Santana just signed with the Diamondbacks, but the free agent market also has Nathaniel Lowe, Paul Goldschmidt, Justin Turner, Ty France and Wilmer Flores available at first base. Lowe and Goldschmidt could be a pretty effective platoon, or they could individually fit teams looking to improve their left\/right balance.<\/p>\n

Running thin in the outfield<\/p>\n

The depth chart projections at FanGraphs peg Ozuna as the only 1 WAR outfielder still on the market, and Ozuna doesn\u2019t really even play the outfield, so it\u2019s down to little more than role players out there. The center-field market has run completely dry now that Harrison Bader has signed with the Giants \u2014 and Dylan Carlson and Chas McCormick took minor-league deals with the Cubs \u2014 while the rest of the corner outfielders are bench\/platoon players. Miguel Andujar just signed with the Padres, but Grichuk, Austin Slater and Tommy Pham are still available from the right side, while Winker, Mike Tauchman and Michael Conforto could provide some left-handed balance. There are also a couple of aging All-Stars \u2014 Starling Marte and Andrew McCutchen \u2014\u00a0who hit a bit in recent seasons but spent most of last year at DH.<\/p>\n

Trade alternatives<\/p>\n

Multiple free agent options at first base surely hurts the trade market for Orioles first baseman Ryan Mountcastle and Rays first baseman Yandy D\u00edaz (Mountcastle, in particular, seems to have very little role to play in Baltimore at this point). But the dearth of options at second, third and shortstop could improve the market for the Cubs should they end up trading either second baseman Nico Hoerner or third baseman Matt Shaw.<\/p>\n

Does anyone else need a catcher?<\/p>\n

We went with Heim as the top catcher on the market, but that\u2019s largely because of his age (30) and the fact that he\u2019s been a solid everyday catcher in the past. Reality is, he\u2019s been a negative fWAR player the past two years, and by that measurement was easily outperformed last season by fellow free agents D\u00edaz and Christian V\u00e1zquez (also by Reese McGuire who recently settled for a minor-league deal with the Brewers). There\u2019s never been a lot of available catching in this market, and the position has grown incredibly thin since J.T. Realmuto, Victor Caratini and Danny Jansen signed.<\/p>\n

Versatility in the infield\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Isaiah Kiner-Falefa was probably the best remaining shortstop on the market, until the Red Sox scooped him up Wednesday. (Duane Burleson \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Middle infield has never been a strength of this free agent class, and at this point, it\u2019s down to the bare bones. Isaiah Kiner-Falefa was probably the closest thing to an everyday shortstop, but he signed with the Red Sox late Wednesday. Otherwise, Rodgers and Ur\u00edas are Gold Glove winners who better fit a utility role (Luis Ur\u00edas, Kyle Farmer and Thairo Estrada are also still out there with experience at multiple positions). We also included Rengifo on our roster because his profile is quite a bit different than the other utility types (a bat-first option who can play almost any position, albeit poorly) and we put Hern\u00e1ndez in our starting lineup because there are so few viable center field alternatives (even Hern\u00e1ndez has barely played center the past two years).<\/p>\n

Best of what\u2019s left<\/p>\n

Until late Wednesday night there was still one top-20 player still unsigned from our Big Board, but that changed when Valdez signed with the Tigers. Now, the top remaining free agent is a different starting pitcher, Gallen, who ranked No. 21 on the Big Board. A lot of teams known to be in the market for starters \u2014 the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles, Astros, Diamondbacks, Giants \u2014 have already added multiple starting pitchers, though the Orioles and Giants, in particular, could remain in the market for a higher-impact arm, and it\u2019s hard to rule out a reunion with the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n

Best of the rest<\/p>\n

None is necessarily an ace, but Gallen (21), Giolito (30), Bassitt (31), Littell (37) and Scherzer (41) all made the Big Board and remain unsigned. That\u2019s not a terrible collection of starting pitchers to pick from this late in the offseason. Justin Verlander is another big name still out there along with veterans Nick Martinez and Jose Quintana and 29-year-old Griffin Canning, each of whom had an above-average ERA+ last season. Dig much deeper than that, though, and the market gets into a lot of bounce-back finger crossing: Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez, Jordan Montgomery, Walker Buehler, Aaron Civale, Jon Gray.<\/p>\n

Relief market picked over<\/p>\n

Kopech is the last Big Board reliever left in free agency (and he just barely made the list at No. 50). Otherwise, the relief market was the fastest to move this offseason, and it spurred a ton of closer turnover (Edwin D\u00edaz, Devin Williams, Ryan Helsley, Kenley Jansen, Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez, Pete Fairbanks). What\u2019s left is basically dart throwing. Is Martinez more likely to sign as a starter? How quickly can Phillips return from Tommy John surgery? Could someone like Ryan Brasier, Jose Leclerc or Liam Hendriks re-emerge as a late-inning option for a year?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s February, pitchers and catchers report to spring training in a less than a week, and amidst a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-450412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450412","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=450412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}