In April 2025 — nearly 11 months before the 2026 World Baseball Classic — Mets superstar Francisco Lindor proudly declared his intention to participate in the triennial tournament. Lindor would serve as Puerto Rico’s team captain, an honor he carried during the 2023 event. But the 2026 edition would have added significance for Lindor, with Puerto Rico set to host WBC games in San Juan for the first time since 2013.
But on Friday, less than a week before the WBC roster announcement coming Thursday, news broke that Lindor had been denied the necessary insurance coverage due to a “cleanup procedure” on his right elbow that he underwent following the 2025 MLB season. The issue isn’t expected to hamper Lindor in spring training or beyond, but it was significant enough to preclude his participation in the upcoming WBC.
Predictably, that revelation unleashed a torrent of fury in Puerto Rico, where locals were eager to see their island’s biggest sporting star shine on home soil. The Lindor news came days after the team’s second-biggest draw, Astros infielder Carlos Correa, also failed to secure coverage for reasons related to his injury history. The same was true for a handful of other supplementary players on Puerto Rico’s roster, including José Berríos and Victor Caratini.
Those unforeseen absences left Puerto Rico’s roster dangerously undermanned and elicited a drastic response from the head of Puerto Rico’s Baseball Federation, José Quiles. In an interview conducted Friday, Quiles threatened to withdraw the entire team from the event if certain insurance decisions weren’t overturned.
Sources with knowledge of the situation told Yahoo Sports that it is extremely unlikely that Puerto Rico backs out, as doing so would lead to significant, lasting sanctions from the WBSC, baseball’s global governing body. However, according to other reports, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and high-ranking MLB Players Association officials have begun lobbying the insurance company to review an unknown number of decisions.Their involvement seems to have precipitated the overturning of some lower-profile denials, but it remains to be seen if the league and union have the sway to greenlight stars such as Correa and Lindor.
This entire saga has thrust the World Baseball Classic’s arcane insurance policies into the spotlight. During an MLB season, all players on a team’s 40-man roster play on guaranteed contracts, meaning they get paid regardless of injury. The World Baseball Classic is a different story.
In order to protect MLB clubs in case of player injury, the WBC organization takes out insurance policies on the contracts of all 40-man-roster players participating in the tournament. If a player gets hurt while playing for his country, the MLB team in question receives financial compensation for any time missed. This dynamic became relevant during the 2023 tournament, when Mets and Puerto Rico reliever Edwin Díaz tore the patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating a save in the WBC and missed the entire MLB season. Also, Astros and Venezuela second baseman José Altuve suffered a thumb fracture when he was hit by a pitch and was on the shelf for nearly two months.
National Financial Partners handles the requests for insurance coverage on a case-by-case basis, evaluating whether a player’s injury history is “low-risk,” “moderate” or “chronic.” The “chronic” label means a higher threshold for approval and applies to any player who fits any of the following criteria, according to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez:
Spent at least 60 days on the injured list during the previous season
Injured for two of their team’s final three games the previous season
Underwent at least two surgeries over the course of their career
Underwent surgery following the previous season
A new provision also stipulates that players 37 or older are ineligible for coverage. That rule will likely prevent Dodgers World Series hero Miguel Rojas from suiting up for Venezuela, though it’s unclear whether he would have made the country’s final roster.
Both Lindor (elbow surgery after the 2025 season) and Correa (multiple career surgeries) qualify as “chronic” players. In addition, their relatively large contracts likely played a significant role in NFP’s decision, making it more difficult for their insurance to get approved.
As one person with inside knowledge explained it: “The insurance company is insuring the contract, not the player.” That’s likely why Lindor, with six years and $204.6 million left on his deal, was declined, while an oft-injured player such as Byron Buxton (three years, $45.4 million) was approved. Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani is approved to hit in the tournament but won’t pitch, as his two elbow surgeries would’ve made it nearly impossible for him to get the necessary insurance.
Players who fail to get insurance have four options: (1) Don’t participate. (2) Waive insurance and risk forgoing salary in the event of injury. (3) Pay for insurance themselves. (4) Receive a waiver from their MLB club. The fourth option is rarely used, but it did occur in 2023, when a depleted version of future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera hoped to play for Venezuela ahead of his final MLB season. His insurance was predictably declined, but the Detroit Tigers took on the risk, agreeing to pay his salary regardless of possible injury.
More often than not, an uninsured player simply sits out the tournament. That’s what happened in 2023 with since-retired Dodgers hurler Clayton Kershaw. The future Hall of Famer had committed to play for Team USA but changed course after his insurance was denied. His unexpected absence left the 2023 pitching staff without an ace, which played a role in both of the team’s defeats in the tournament.
Motivated by that frustrating experience, Team USA manager Mark DeRosa adopted a more proactive approach when crafting his roster this time around. Notably, Team USA has focused its recruitment efforts on players more likely to get approved for insurance. That might be why, for instance, Mike Trout, a crucial character in 2023, is unlikely to compete in 2026. It could also help explain why Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper, despite having announced his participation on social media, has yet to be included on MLB’s page of participating players.
Total clarity is unlikely before the official roster announcements on Thursday. Even so, Puerto Rico’s omissions aside, most of MLB’s best players are expected to appear in next month’s tournament. That includes nine of the top 10 players in MLB Network’s recently released Top 100 Player Rankings (José Ramírez is the only exception), an uptick from 2023, when seven of the top 10 appeared in the WBC.
It’s a reminder that despite recent rancor, the event has only continued to grow in popularity among players. The consensus top two pitchers on Earth, Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes, are both playing for the first time. So, too, are the game’s top two hitters, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Juan Soto, owners of the two largest contracts in MLB history, will also suit up for the Dominican Republic.
None of that, however, will be any solace to Puerto Rico. Lindor is a generational talent at his professional peak, one of the greatest players in the island’s long and storied baseball history. He currently ranks fifth all time in bWAR among players born on the island; the four legends ahead of him — Roberto Alomar, Iván Rodríguez, Carlos Beltrán and Roberto Clemente — are all Hall of Famers.
The void created by Lindor’s absence in the WBC cannot be filled, leaving Puerto Rican ball fans feeling understandably aggrieved. And nobody, it seems, is at fault. In this instance, there is no obvious villain to blame. Just a sense of disappointment.
Los Angeles Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz is looking to exorcise some demons at the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The closer announced he will pitch for Puerto Rico once again in the event, three years after he sustained a season-ending knee injury during a celebration on the mound of a WBC game.
Díaz, 31, is making his third appearance in the World Baseball Classic. While he made it through the 2017 WBC unscathed, Díaz sustained a shocking injury at the event in 2023, wrecking his MLB season.
The injury occurred during a team celebration after Díaz picked up a save against the Dominican Republic in the pool stage of the tournament. The win sent Puerto Rico to the quarterfinals, leading to Díaz’s teammates rushing the field and jumping up and down.
While cameras didn’t capture the exact moment of the injury, Díaz was then spotted on the ground holding his right knee. Players from Team Puerto Rico gathered around the closer. He eventually needed a wheelchair to exit the field. Díaz’s brother, fellow MLB closer Alexis Díaz, was spotted crying on the field following his brother’s injury.
It was eventually determined that Díaz tore the patellar tendon in his right knee, and he missed the entire 2023 MLB season while recovering from the injury. The New York Mets struggled without their closer, going 75-87 in 2023.
The injury caused a firestorm among fans, who questioned why it was worth it for Díaz — who had just signed a five-year, $102 million extension with the Mets — to risk an injury playing for another team. And Díaz wasn’t the only MLB superstar to sustain an injury during the 2023 WBC. Houston Astros and Team Venezuela second baseman Jose Altuve played in just 90 games during the MLB regular season after fracturing his thumb on a hit-by-pitch during a game against Team USA.
After missing the entire 2023 season, Díaz returned in 2024 and put up a 3.52 ERA over 53 2/3 innings. He was even better in 2025, posting a 1.63 ERA over 66 1/3 innings and making the All-Star team for the third time in his career. Díaz hit the free-agent market following that performance and was rewarded with a three-year, $69 million deal with the Dodgers.
The previous injury, combined with his expensive new contract, wasn’t enough to deter Díaz from participating in the event in 2026. He hinted as much ahead of the 2025 season, telling Newsday that he wanted to take part in the event in 2026 because, “We don’t have the chance to play for our country [often].”
With just days to go before pitchers and catchers report to spring training in Arizona and Florida, the final flurry of free-agent activity is underway.
The hitting market has taken shape, with star outfielder Kyle Tucker reaching a deal with the Dodgers, Bo Bichette joining the Mets, Alex Bregman landing with the Cubs, Cody Bellinger returning to the Yankees, and Pete Alonso (Orioles) and Kyle Schwarber (Phillies) also finding the big paydays they were looking for.
Earlier in the winter, the reliever market heated up first, with Edwin Diaz, Devin Williams and other top arms landing big contracts with new teams. Dylan Cease signed a megadeal with the Blue Jays before Thanksgiving, but the starting pitcher market has been relatively quiet besides Tatsuya Imai landing with the Astros and Ranger Suarez joining the Red Sox. Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen remain unsigned, among a number of other starting pitchers still in need of a team. Four players accepted qualifying offers: Trent Grisham (Yankees), Shota Imanaga (Cubs), Gleyber Torres (Tigers) and Brandon Woodruff (Brewers). And the NPB posting windows reached their conclusion, with Munetaka Murakami, Imai and Kazuma Okamoto finding their MLB homes.
There’s still some offseason business yet to be done. Here’s our ranking of the 2025-26 free-agent class.
Note: An asterisk indicates a player received a qualifying offer. Ages listed are for the 2026 season (age on June 30, 2026). You can find a full list of free agents here.
Tucker was the consensus No. 1 player in this free-agent class and commanded a massive contract to back it up. That’s a product of his age — he doesn’t turn 29 until January — and long track record of offensive impact. Since 2020, Tucker’s first full MLB season, he is one of just six hitters to post an OPS above .800 every year. The others are all well-paid superstars: Freddie Freeman, Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, José Ramírez and Juan Soto. Based solely on the bat, Tucker undoubtedly belongs in that group. Hitters like this don’t hit the open market often, and when they do, they make a killing.
That said, the low-talking Floridian reached free agency after an oddly paced walk year with the Cubs. Tucker was dealt from Houston, where he’d spent his entire career, to Chicago in a blockbuster deal last offseason. He got off to a scorching start with the Cubs, was named an All-Star starter and looked like a legit MVP candidate. As late as June 28, he sported a .933 OPS.
Then things got weird. Tucker’s power production cratered in July and August, as he managed just four homers across 211 plate appearances. It turned out he was playing through a hairline fracture in his hand for most of the summer. Just as he appeared to be shifting back into gear, he suffered a calf strain that kept him sidelined until the final week of the regular season.
It marked the second straight year that Tucker was significantly limited by injuries, but that didn’t prevent him from landing a massive payday with L.A. Tucker also tends to employ a more laid-back pregame routine that prioritizes preserving energy. That less-is-more approach has helped him ascend to All-Star status, but it raises a few concerns around the league about how he might age and how he’ll adapt if his body starts to need more maintenance. Signs of that physical decline have popped up in Tucker’s sprint speed and defensive metrics, areas in which his skills have dwindled precipitously over the past few seasons.
A free agent last winter, Bregman ended up in Boston on a three-year, $120 million deal with opt-outs after each season. And after a productive season at Fenway, he reentered the market. A quad issue robbed him of two months over the summer and intensified concerns about Bregman’s gradually deteriorating lower half, but the offensive profile remains incredibly strong. From a swing-decision standpoint, he’s about as good as anybody in the sport. And while the contact quality has dropped off since his MVP contender days, it’s more than good enough to make this version of Bregman an All-Star-level player. Plus, Bregman was heralded for his influence on Boston’s bevy of young players. The Cubs finally spent like a big-market team to add his bat to their lineup and his impact in their clubhouse.
What a season it was for one of the best true power bats of his generation: 56 home runs, 132 RBI and a .928 OPS. Sure, Schwarber is a flawed player — he’s limited to DH, strikes out a ton, doesn’t offer much on the bases and turns 33 in March — but it’s not worth overthinking this. The guy went deep 56 times. People don’t do that too often. For what it’s worth, Schwarber is also regarded as one of the few game-changing locker room presences in the sport. The Phils were front-runners to retain Schwarber’s services and ultimately got it done.
A knee sprain kept Bichette on the shelf from early September to the World Series, for which he came back and batted .348. Late-season injury woes aside, 2025 was an extremely successful campaign for the sweet-swinging shortstop. Bichette rebounded from a disastrous 2024 to post numbers more in line with his career norms, swatting 18 homers to go with a .311 batting average that ranked second in baseball.
Let’s get the elephant out of the way: Bichette is a bad shortstop. Last season, he ranked as the game’s worst every-day glove at the infield’s most important spot. A prudent team would probably move him to second or third, but Bichette probably wants to stick at short. His defensive inadequacies don’t overwhelm the value of his bat — this dude rakes — but it adds a wart to the profile.
Still, Bichette’s track record of performance and his age made him well worth it for the Mets at $126 million. That he managed to return to Toronto’s lineup for the World Series despite not being 100 percent and contributed multiple meaningful hits, including his jaw-dropping blast off Shohei Ohtani in Game 7, lent further credence to his toughness and talent. Optimistically, he should have at least a half-decade of prime left; he’ll spend the first three years of that in Queens.
Last winter, the Polar Bear and the only club he’d ever known engaged in a protracted stare-down that included a public besmirching from Mets owner Steve Cohen. In the end, Alonso’s market never materialized, and he returned to Queens on a lucrative, two-year deal with an opt-out that everyone expected him to exercise.
Unsurprisingly, that’s what happened after Alonso posted an OPS nearly 100 points higher than his 2024 total. The underlying numbers also rebounded, particularly his average exit velocities and his optimal launch angle percentages. Was that enough to reorient his value as a free agent and earn him the longer-term pact he was looking for a year ago? The Orioles answered with a resounding yes.
Alonso remains a horrid defender at first and a real liability on the bases. Still, he’s generally underrated, the type of needle-moving bat that would make every roster — including Baltimore’s — significantly better.
An unbridled force-of-nature at the plate since he became an every-day player in NPB at age 19, Murakami entered the posting system after seven seasons of legendary slugging in Japan. In 2022, Murakami made history by smashing 56 home runs in 141 games, an NPB record that stands as the most in a single season by a Japanese-born player. Having set an unthinkable standard of Barry Bonds-esque dominance in that 2022 season, with a mind-blowing 225 wRC+, Murakami’s merely outstanding encores in 2023 (31 HR, 150 wRC+) and 2024 (33 HR, 155 wRC+) were viewed as minor disappointments, despite still ranking as some of the best offensive seasons in the league.
The spotlight grew brighter in 2025, as a potential move to MLB came into focus, but an oblique injury cost Murakami multiple months, shrinking the opportunities to scout him. Yet even in an abbreviated sample, Murakami put on a show, nearly returning to his 2022 power peak with a ridiculous .663 SLG% and a whopping 22 home runs in 56 games.
So what’s the catch? Why isn’t this left-handed slugger with prodigious power ranked closer to Tucker on this list? It’s simple: Murakami strikes out a lot. His 29% K rate over the past three seasons is exceptionally high relative to his NPB peers, and while that number might not stand out in MLB right now, it’s difficult for teams to be optimistic that he’s going to make more contact against superior arms stateside. If anything, the concern is that the opposite could occur, with the whiffs piling up to the point that Murakami’s power production is undermined, and he becomes a flawed slugger with volatile ups and downs, a la Joey Gallo.
It’s also entirely realistic to suggest that Murakami is young and talented enough to make the necessary adjustments to become a classic, power-and-patience superstar in the mold of Matt Olson or Max Muncy, with the high volume of walks and homers compensating for the sky-high strikeout totals. That Murakami is not considered especially likely to stick at third base adds even more pressure on his bat to live up to the hype in Chicago. His issues making contact likely spooked some teams in free agency, negating the upside of his youth and nearly unrivaled NPB résumé. As it turned out, there wasn’t a significant bidding war for his services, giving the White Sox an opportunity at a bargain in their rebuild.
No matter how you slice it, glassy-eyed Cody was the second-best position player on the 2025 Yankees behind Aaron Judge. After the Cubs essentially contract-dumped him for nothing last winter, Bellinger responded with his best all-around season since his 2019 MVP campaign. His offensive profile has changed quite a bit since then, but this version of Bellinger — allergic to strikeouts, hitting the ball in the air to the pull side just enough — is a really valuable player.
Add his superb defense in an outfield corner and his relative youth, and you’ve got a legitimate second or third option on a World Series team. Bellinger enjoyed his year in pinstripes, and the Yankees loved what he brought to the table. A reunion always made a lot of sense, and the two sides got it done, but this new deal with the Yanks does put pressure on Bellinger’s ability to play center field, where he’s more average than great at this point.
The Big Three arms
8. *Framber Valdez, SP, 32
You could make a strong argument that Valdez belongs in a category all his own, above this other group of arms. The dreadlocked lefty finished top-10 in Cy Young voting in 2022, ‘23 and ‘24. He’s also incredibly durable, as one of just two pitchers to toss at least 175 innings in each of the past four seasons (Logan Webb is the other). Then there’s the October experience: Valdez has 16 career postseason outings. The point is Valdez has been one of the more valuable starting pitchers of this decade. And while his numbers took a half-step back in 2025, he still boasted an elite groundball rate and kept hitters from squaring up the ball.
Valdez’s bizarre interaction with catcher Cesar Salazar in early September, in which Valdez appeared to purposefully cross-up Salazar with a fastball, amplified some previously held concerns about Valdez’s conduct as a teammate. That incident won’t tank his free agency, far from it, but it’s a data point worth noting.
Ranger’s sinker — his most used offering — averages a frosty 90.1 mph, firmly in the bottom 10% league-wide in velocity. Yet Suárez gets outs. A lot of ‘em. After missing the start of the year due to a back issue, the Venezuelan southpaw posted the best numbers of his career, finishing with a 3.20 ERA and just below a strikeout per inning. His postseason track record is notably robust, with a 1.48 ERA across 42 2/3 career innings. Do you feel excited about him starting Game 1 of a playoff series? Probably not. But Game 2 or 3? Definitely. There are some concerns about how he’ll age, particularly if the fastball velocity dips under 90 mph, as there simply aren’t many guys throwing this soft who get outs. But Suárez has been doing this schtick for a few years now, and the Red Sox felt good enough about it to add him on a nine-figure deal.
Unlike the southpaw groundball specialists such as Valdez or Suárez fronting their rotations, Cease represents an appealing alternative at the top of the starting pitching market. And a Toronto team fresh off a World Series appearance liked what it saw. While his run-prevention skills have fluctuated more in recent seasons than the two lefties in this tier, Cease has been one of the game’s premier strikeout artists for his entire career, thanks to a tremendous fastball-slider combo. His bouts of ineffectiveness are the product of too many walks and far more hard contact surrendered than you’d expect for someone with Cease’s swing-and-miss stuff, but Cease has been worth at least 3.0 fWAR for five consecutive seasons.
That consistency is rooted in nearly unrivaled durability: Cease leads all MLB pitchers in starts over the past five years and has never been on the injured list due to an arm injury. Pitcher health is fickle, of course, so there’s no guarantee Cease will remain uninjured for the duration of his Blue Jays contract; it’s also possible some teams viewed the mileage on his arm as problematic. But Toronto saw that longstanding reliability as worthy of committing heavily to him in free agency, and Cease’s demonstrated peaks — including top-four Cy Young finishes in 2022 and ‘24 — likely helped his cause.
The Mets’ embarrassing collapse does not fall on Díaz’s shoulders, as the lanky Puerto Rican was brilliant once again this year. Now that Emmanuel Clase has effectively been banished for his gambling-related malfeasance, there’s a strong argument that Díaz is the undisputed best reliever in the game. After a catastrophic leg injury during the World Baseball Classic robbed him of his entire 2023 season, Díaz is, amazingly, all the way back to his rip-roaring best.
That’s why, despite having two years and $37 million left on his deal, Díaz opted out to become a free agent. A reunion with the Mets remained likely, but there was no reason for Eddie-D not to try to squeeze out every last dollar that he has earned over the past few years, and the Dodgers were willing to pay Díaz like the elite closer he is.
Tier 2 starter
12. *Zac Gallen, SP, 30
It has been a troubling and confounding decline for Gallen since his third-place NL Cy Young finish in 2023. His first-half struggles in the final year of his Snakes contract were bad enough that no team was willing to meet the price to trade for him in July, despite the right-hander’s widely reported availability, and considering his 5.60 ERA at the deadline, it was tough to blame them.
Funnily enough, once the trade rumors were behind him and Gallen knew he was going to remain a D-back for the rest of the season, he started to pitch much better, posting a 3.32 ERA in 65 innings over his final 11 outings and restoring some optimism that he could warrant a sizable payday in free agency. It’s not like Gallen’s stuff and velocity are markedly different than during his peak, but regression with his command has caused all five of his pitches to perform worse, a trend that will need to be corrected if he is to reestablish himself as a quality starter whom teams are excited to have on the mound in important games.
A franchise staple for one of the most prominent organizations in NPB, the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants, Okamoto’s prospects of coming to MLB had long been clouded by Yomiuri’s longstanding reluctance to post its players. But Yomiuri will honor Okamoto’s desire to make the jump to the big leagues now, enabling the team to receive some financial compensation for his departure, rather than likely watching him leave for nothing after the 2026 season, when he’d reach the requisite nine years of NPB service to become an unrestricted international free agent.
Okamoto has been one of the best hitters in Japan for a while — he homered against Team USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic championship — but he leveled up in a meaningful way in 2025. Although he missed two-plus months in the middle of the season due to a left elbow injury, Okamoto was tremendously productive at the plate when healthy.
He hit .327/.416/.598 with 15 HR in 293 plate appearances across 69 games, good for an astonishing 214 wRC+ that ranked first among NPB hitters with at least 200 plate appearances — yes, even ahead of Murakami (208 wRC+). Okamoto’s 11.3% strikeout rate and 90% in-zone contact rate were both career-best marks, and he is exceptionally adept at pulling the ball in the air, enabling his power to manifest regularly in games.
He’s also a better bet to stick at third base long-term than Murakami, and he has experience at first base and in left field, offering several paths for him to fit on the Blue Jays’ roster. He’s four years older, right-handed and doesn’t possess quite the eye-popping raw power of Murakami, but it’s entirely reasonable to suggest that Okamoto is more likely to succeed in MLB right away and possibly in the long term as well.
Joining Murakami and Okamoto in this winter’s class of Japanese stars making the jump to MLB is Imai, who was posted by the Seibu Lions following a monster season in which he led all NPB starters in WHIP (0.89) and strikeout rate (27.8%) while posting a 1.92 ERA in 163 ⅔ innings. Relative to nearly every other NPB pitcher who has come to MLB in recent years, Imai’s pitch mix is notably more shallow — for now, anyway. His 95-mph four-seam fastball (48%) and 86-mph slider (33%) accounted for more than three-quarters of his pitches thrown in 2025, with the changeup (9%), splitter (5%) and sinker (4%) usage lagging behind.
That’s not to say there aren’t successful MLB starters deploying a heavy dose of heaters and sliders — Cease, Hunter Greene, and Spencer Strider say hello — but it remains to be seen if Imai’s stuff is good enough at present for him to follow suit or if his arsenal will need adjusting in Houston. Age is on Imai’s side — he doesn’t turn 28 until May — but there are enough questions that the financial outlay is closer to what Kodai Senga got than Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Traded by Cleveland last winter after his first All-Star appearance, Naylor raked for the D-backs before being dealt to Seattle at the deadline and becoming a key contributor during the Mariners’ postseason run. Don’t be fooled by his burly build and high-effort hacks into thinking that Naylor is a one-dimensional slugger; there’s a lot more finesse to his game than meets the eye.
That was most evident in his shocking success stealing bases in 2025, despite his third percentile sprint speed, but it’s also relevant in the batter’s box, where Naylor’s excellent contact ability keeps his strikeout totals low while enabling his power to play to all fields and against various pitch types. He has also turned himself into a rock-solid defender at first base. It appears Naylor’s relative youth and positive recent trajectory helped land him a deal longer than the three-year, $60 million contract Christian Walker secured last offseason as one of free agency’s top available first basemen. By getting Naylor into that fifth year, the Mariners got a manageable $18.5 million AAV.
16. *Trent Grisham, OF, 29
UPDATE: Grisham accepted the one-year qualifying offer from the Yankees at $22.025 million.
Arguably no player climbed these rankings more dramatically over the course of the season than Grisham, who exploded into relevance as a key member of the Yankees’ position-player group after being a virtual afterthought in his first season in the Bronx. To wit: Despite being on the roster for the entire season and every round of the postseason during New York’s run to the World Series in 2024, Grisham appeared in just 76 regular-season games and zero in October.
This year, Grisham’s 581 plate appearances marked a career high and ranked fourth on the team. Center fielders with Grisham’s power (34 HR) and patience (14.1% walk rate) are rare, and that he’s still just 29. It’s possible some teams viewed him in a fairly skeptical light, considering his timely career year follows a much longer major-league track record of mediocrity, but there are real skills to be excited about here for the Yankees.
17. *Gleyber Torres, 2B, 29
UPDATE: Torres accepted the one-year qualifying offer from the Tigers at $22.025 million.
Torres hit free agency last winter as one of the youngest position players available but ultimately settled for a one-year deal with Detroit, with hopes of bolstering his value with a stronger 2025 showing than in his last hurrah as a Yankee. He generally succeeded, exhibiting elite plate discipline while improving both his hard-hit and barrel rates. He was especially terrific early on for the Tigers (.284/.386/.437 in 72 games through the end of June) but notably faded as the season went on, a decline perhaps explained by a hernia Torres revealed he was playing through after Detroit’s season ended in October.
He underwent surgery to address the issue, and that rehab is not projected to impact his availability to start 2026. Although his defense continues to rate as comfortably below-average, Torres gives an offensive boost at the keystone for Detroit.
Polanco entered free agency a year ago on a decidedly dour note, having just endured the worst campaign of his career in his first year as a Mariner before undergoing knee surgery at the outset of the offseason. Even still, Polanco’s longstanding track record of production before his injury-marred 2024 earned him a spot toward the end of our free-agent rankings, with the idea that a bounce-back could be in store if he could get healthy.
After staying in Seattle on a one-year deal, Polanco did exactly that, turning in an excellent regular season at the plate (26 HR, 132 wRC+) and delivering several of Seattle’s biggest swings during its run to Game 7 of the ALCS. That strong showing was enough to garner a multiyear deal from the Mets for Polanco in his second trip to the open market. Still, he is a poor defender with a troubling injury history, an indicator of why the deal was relatively short.
A breakout 2024 had King primed for a massive platform year in 2025, and his first 10 starts of the season (2.59 ERA in 55 ⅔ innings) suggested he was firmly on track to pitch his way into the top tier of free-agent starters. Then a shoulder injury put him on the shelf for all of June and July, and a left knee injury derailed him shortly after he returned to the mound in August. King was healthy enough to make four September starts and a one-inning relief appearance in the wild-card series, but with just one fully healthy season as a major-league starting pitcher on his résumé (2024), his durability remains a considerable red flag for the Padres, who nonetheless decided to keep him around.
20. *Shota Imanaga, SP, 32
UPDATE: Imanaga accepted the one-year qualifying offer from the Cubs at $22.025 million.
The complex, four-year contract Imanaga signed with the Cubs two years ago featured a crucial decision point following the 2025 season, when Chicago could opt to guarantee Imanaga three more seasons at $57 million or decline to do so, instead affording Imanaga the opportunity to exercise a $15 million player option for 2026. On Nov. 4, Chicago declined to extend Imanaga for three more years, and Imanaga then declined his own one-year option, briefly adding him to the intriguing pool of free-agent starting pitchers before he accepted his QO.
Brilliant as a 30-year-old rookie in 2024, Imanaga regressed in his second major-league season in terms of both durability and effectiveness, missing several starts due to a hamstring strain midsummer and seeing his ERA rise from 2.91 to 3.73. While Imanaga remains an elite strike-thrower who doesn’t allow a boatload of baserunners — his WHIP actually improved in his second season — he’s troublingly susceptible to opponents’ slugging, with a 1.93 HR/9 that ranked second-highest among pitchers with at least 100 innings thrown in 2025. That bugaboo proved costly in the postseason, when he surrendered two key long balls against Milwaukee in NLDS Game 2.
It’s an imperfect profile, but there is still a lot to like about what Imanaga brings on and off the field for the Cubs.
21. Lucas Giolito, SP, 31
Giolito was one of baseball’s most durable starting pitchers until elbow surgery wiped out the entirety of his first year with the Red Sox in 2024. He bounced back with a 3.41 ERA in 145 innings in 2025 but finished the year on a sour note when he reported elbow discomfort that made him unavailable for Boston’s wild-card series against the Yankees. The Red Sox didn’t rule Giolito out for future postseason rounds, but their early elimination left his status uncertain at the outset of the offseason.
By reaching 140 innings in the regular season, Giolito converted his $19 million team option for 2026 into a player option, which he declined. If he is fully healthy, Giolito remains an alluring option for teams searching for stability in the rotation, though without sizable upside.
22. *Brandon Woodruff, SP, 33
UPDATE: Woodruff accepted the one-year qualifying offer from the Brewers at $22.025 million.
Before shoulder surgery put him on the shelf for a year and a half, Woodruff was one of the best starers in MLB: His 2.93 ERA in 595 innings from 2019 to 2023 was fourth-lowest among qualified starters. But returns from major shoulder injuries tend to be more tenuous than returns from elbow surgery, and the results of Woodruff’s reacclimation to the Brewers’ rotation were extraordinary and unusual. Despite his fastball velocity averaging closer to 93 mph than the 96 he sat at pre-surgery, Woodruff was as dominant as ever, registering a career-high strikeout rate (32.3%) and career-low walk rate (5.4%) while posting a 3.20 ERA in 64 ⅔ innings. He ditched his slider in favor of a cutter, both his two-seam and four-seam fastballs continued to perform well even with diminished velocity, and his changeup remained an excellent swing-and-miss offering.
Thirty-one catchers compiled at least 1.0 FanGraphs WAR in 2025. Only two of them, Realmuto and Danny Jansen, hit free agency. Despite Realmuto’s advanced age, he was far and away the best backstop available this winter. The muscled Oklahoman isn’t what he once was — the best catcher in the world — but he’s still a valuable player. He was essentially a league-average hitter last season and remained impressively durable, leading the league in games started behind the dish. A reunion with the Phillies always felt like the most likely outcome; he’s too valuable a cog in their pitching operation to let walk. And he got the three-year deal he sought.
Suárez hit 49 home runs in 2025 for the second time in his career and returned to the Mariners via midseason trade after a year-and-a-half as a Diamondback, enabling him to take part in Seattle’s memorable October run, which included one of the biggest swings in franchise history: his go-ahead grand slam in ALCS Game 5. For as feel-good of a story as the Suárez-to-Seattle reunion was, it was difficult to ignore his sharp decline in production post-trade, and that soured some of the optimism for his market. Sure enough, he ended up settling for a one-year deal.
Suárez’s issues making consistent contact likely aren’t going to improve as he enters his mid-30s, which puts immense pressure on his prodigious slugging to continue if he is to remain a viable every-day player with the Reds, especially if his defense at third base continues to trend in the wrong direction. That said, Suárez’s overwhelmingly positive clubhouse reputation is a bonus for a Cincinnati team in need of a quality veteran presence, in addition to the high-end slugging Suárez brings.
Kim played only 48 games this year — 24 each for Tampa Bay and Atlanta — after signing a two-year free-agent deal with the Rays last winter. Tampa left him on waivers, and the Braves pounced, despite being light-years out of contention, hoping Kim wouldn’t activate his opt-out and they could scoop up an every-day shortstop for 2026 on the cheap. The South Korean infielder declined his $16 million option to reenter the market. He ended up back with the Braves, but for a bit more money. Kim is the only true shortstop in this class, even though he projects to be a well-below-average hitter.
Arraez inspires a wide array of opinions as one of baseball’s most unique players. Traditionalists look at his multiple batting titles and microscopic strikeout rates as outstanding and appealing outliers in an era defined by swing-and-miss, but the modern game prioritizes players who are far more multidimensional than what Arraez currently offers. It’s not just that Arraez rarely produces extra-base hits; it’s that he barely reaches. His walk rates have plummeted recently, and his defense doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
It’d be misleading to suggest that Arraez’s hitting alone is worth a massive long-term contract; fittingly, he landed a one-year deal with the Giants. He’s an exceptionally fun and singular player but also a limited one. Even so, the Giants will be hoping his hit tool can be a boost to their offense in 2026.
It was a tumultuous year for Williams, who was dealt to the Bronx last winter after spending the entirety of his career in Milwaukee. Handed the closer role out of spring training, Williams and his airbender changeup had a cataclysmic April, in which he was booed multiple times by the Yankees faithful and booted from the ninth inning by skipper Aaron Boone.
Things gradually got better over the summer, as Williams regained his manager’s trust and slotted back into a high-leverage role by the playoffs. In fact, he didn’t allow a run in 22 of his final 23 outings, postseason included. With Edwin Diaz leaving Queens, the Mets are likely paying Williams to close, and the airbender is still a special pitch, but Williams’ stock has fallen significantly since this time last year.
The flame-throwing Venezuelan had two years and $16 million left on his deal with the Padres, a nice haul for a reliever his age, but opted out. He got a higher AAV from the Braves after posting another dominant season for the Padres. That 2.97 ERA looks great, not spectacular, but if you overlook two disaster outings in which Suarez recorded one out and surrendered five runs, that figure drops to 1.70.
There are certainly concerns about whether Suarez’s elite fastball velocity (98.5 mph) will sustain as he creeps closer to 40, especially because of how much he leans on that pitch (60% usage), but this is one of the truly elite relievers in the game.
The first-time All-Star tailed off slightly after a deadline deal sent him from Baltimore to San Diego, but the overall numbers were unavoidably impressive for a guy who was left to rot on the waiver-wire scrap heap just a few years ago. O’Hearn’s peripheral numbers were strong for a third straight season and secured him a two-year deal with a Pirates team trying to upgrade this winter. After missing out on the upper crust of Alonso, Schwarber and Naylor, O’Hearn is a perfectly competent consolation prize for Pittsburgh. He also earns rave reviews for his clubhouse presence.
When Bader went from Minnesota to Philadelphia at the deadline, it wasn’t even the biggest Twins-Phillies deal of the week. But the luscious-locked center fielder energized the Phillies’ lineup, offering a much-needed contact-oriented profile. His groin injury in Game 1 of the NLDS turned out to have an enormous impact on that series, as the Phillies sorely missed his presence in the lineup. Coming off the best offensive season of his career, the 32-year-old was rewarded with a two-year contract with the Giants.
Having not debuted in the big leagues until age 28 with the Giants, Yastrzemski finally entered free agency at age 35 coming off a sneaky stellar post-trade run with Kansas City, during which he slugged .500 with more walks (25) than strikeouts (22) across 50 games. His raw power is modest, but Yastrzemski has a knack for pulling the ball in the air and just had a career year from a plate-discipline standpoint, making more contact than ever and drawing walks at a 12.9% clip. He remains subpar against left-handers, but Yastrzemski should be quite productive if deployed properly by the Braves.
Weaver was handed the ninth inning after his teammate Williams hit the schneid in April. He was magnificent through the season’s first two months, with just two earned runs to his name on May 26. Then he hit the shelf due to a hamstring injury that derailed his year. Weaver returned in late June but wasn’t the same, posting a 5.31 ERA the rest of the way before rough outings in AL wild-card Game 1 and ALDS Game 1 pushed him out of Boone’s bullpen trust circle. Just a year ago, this guy was the most trusted arm on a World Series team, so the Mets will be hoping that he bounces back and that his late-season struggles were injury-based, rather than a more concerning harbinger.
The hard-throwing closer had an ERA of 3.00 when he was traded from St. Louis to Queens on deadline day. Helsley had a multiyear track record of high-leverage success, built on one of the hardest heaters in the sport. But his Mets tenure will go down as one of the all-time reliever disasters, as Helsley posted an abhorrent 7.20 ERA in 22 outings in blue and orange. His late-summer implosion was crucial in the Mets’ shocking tumble down the standings.
Helsley compiled the second-most fWAR among relievers between 2022 and ‘24 — 5.7, with a 1.83 ERA in 167 2/3 innings — but his 2025 was so weird, bad and ugly that it might’ve scared some teams off. In the end, though, he got a two-year contract as projected, with an opt-out after the first year.
Mullins spent a decade in the Orioles organization before being dealt to the Mets at the deadline. His production had been closer to league average in the years since his star-level 2021 campaign, in which he hit 30 homers, stole 30 bases and finished ninth in AL MVP voting. His particularly poor showing with New York (.565 OPS including a brutal 6-for-55 skid to finish the season) pushed Mullins much further down these rankings than we expected him to be a few months ago.
An All-Star in 2024 known for his unrivaled defensive versatility, Castro was having another stellar season before he was shipped to Chicago as part of Minnesota’s epic fire sale at the trade deadline. And while he continued to provide value as a competent defender at multiple positions, Castro’s bat completely disappeared as a Cub, posting a paltry .485 OPS and not registering a single plate appearance across Chicago’s eight postseason games. His relative youth and flexibility with the glove still made him a fairly alluring free agent, and the Rockies picked him up on a two-year deal.
That the Rangers were willing to send three solid prospects to Arizona for two months of Kelly suggests that he is still well-regarded within the industry, but free agency is a different equation, especially for a pitcher this old. Without plus velocity, Kelly gets by on great command of a six-pitch repertoire, headlined by an excellent changeup. Like most of the pitchers in this tier, he’s more likely to provide value in the regular season than as a no-doubt postseason starter, but that’s not something to sneeze at. Clearly, the Diamondbacks had enough faith in Kelly, based on his previous stint with the team, to bring him back on a two-year pact.
Mahle was absolutely brilliant through the end of May (1.64 ERA in 66 innings across 12 starts) before fading in June and landing on the injured list due to shoulder fatigue, which kept him out until mid-September. It was encouraging to see him finish the season healthy, but Mahle hasn’t thrown more than 100 innings since 2022.
Recurring back injuries limited Eflin to 14 ineffective starts (5.93 ERA) for Baltimore in 2025, but he was a mid-rotation workhorse the previous two seasons (3.54 ERA in 343 innings) and could prove to be a nice buy-low option for an Orioles team that needed rotation reinforcements. We’re only two years removed from Eflin finishing sixth in AL Cy Young voting — let’s not forget about this guy.
39. Zack Littell, SP, 30
The good: Littell’s 3.73 ERA ranks 17th out of 37 qualified starters over the past two seasons, his 1.65 BB/9 is bested only by Tarik Skubal over that same timeframe, and among free-agent pitchers, only Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen threw more innings in 2025 than Littell’s 186 2/3 frames.
The bad: Whiffs are hard to come by for Littell (17.1% strikeout rate ranked 47th out of 52 qualified starters in 2025), and he’s particularly susceptible to the long ball, making his next home ballpark a crucial variable when projecting his effectiveness moving forward.
40. Griffin Canning, SP, 30
After allowing the most earned runs in the American League with the Angels in 2024, Canning was enjoying a nice bounce-back season in his first year with the Mets, leaning heavily on his slider and changeup to keep hitters off-balance. But his season ended abruptly when he ruptured his left Achilles on a non-contact play in June, starting a rehab process that could stretch into 2026. A team that believes in Canning’s revamped form with New York and his ability to rebound from serious injury could target the right-hander as a low-cost rotation option.
Hitters who confuse us
41. Max Kepler, OF, 33
Kepler struggled badly out the gate in his first year as a Phillie but settled into being a useful contributor and finished the regular season strong, hitting .262/.322/.505 with seven home runs over his final 30 games. Kepler still exhibits decent power and plate discipline, but his earning potential will depend on whether teams view him as a viable every-day player or more in a predominantly platoon role, like Philadelphia did. Not helping Kepler’s free-agent case is an 80-game suspension for testing positive for PEDs, which the league announced Jan. 9.
42. Miguel Andujar, OF/DH, 31
Albeit in a smaller sample, Andujar quietly posted one of the better offensive seasons of any free-agent bat available. Among hitters with at least 300 plate appearances in 2025, Andujar’s .318 average ranked second in MLB behind only Aaron Judge, and he was one of the most productive trade-deadline acquisitions in the league after being dealt by the A’s to the Reds. He remains a poor defender who doesn’t draw walks, but he crushes lefties and makes a ton of contact. He’s a sneaky target for teams on a tight budget looking for offense.
This isn’t just any platoon bat. The degree to which Refsnyder demolishes left-handed pitching puts him in some truly outrageous company. Among hitters with at least 250 plate appearances against southpaws over the past two seasons, Refsnyder’s .949 OPS ranks fifth behind Aaron Judge, Ketel Marte, José Ramírez and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. That’s ridiculous. He’s essentially unplayable against right-handers and a below-average corner-outfield defender, but his special skill still makes Refsnyder an appealing pickup for the Mariners.
An unremarkable starting pitcher for the first six years of his career, Keller broke out in a big way in the Cubs’ bullpen in 2025, throwing harder than ever and posting a sterling 2.07 ERA in 69 2/3 innings with underlying data that strongly supports his performance as legitimate. Keller cost considerably less than the top relievers who already have a boatload of saves on their résumés, but he could offer similar or even greater upside for the Phillies if he can sustain the gains he made in Chicago.
Iglesias had a catastrophic start to his season, allowing seven home runs across his first 25 appearances after allowing four total in 66 games pitched in 2024. That left him with an unsightly 6.75 ERA in early June, but after that, Iglesias got back on track and was generally the elite game-ender we’ve long known him to be, posting a 1.25 ERA over his final 43 1/3 innings, a dominant stretch that went somewhat unnoticed amid a lost Braves season.
Iglesias and Keller are our picks to squeeze into the end of our Top 50 among a deep free-agent class of accomplished righty relievers that also includes Kenley Jansen, Kyle Finnegan, Emilio Pagán, Phil Maton and Tyler Rogers.
Veteran starters
46. Chris Bassitt, SP, 37
After another year of sturdy work in the rotation — Bassitt is one just seven pitchers to make at least 30 starts in each of the past four seasons — the 36-year-old right-hander made a successful transition to the bullpen for Toronto’s World Series run. He allowed just one run across his eight relief outings in October, demonstrating versatility that could prove valuable as teams project his role as he enters the latter stages of his career.
It’s also worth a mention that the Blue Jays’ clubhouse absolutely adores this guy, and Bassitt has not been shy in expressing his desire to stay put. Sentimentality and postseason bullpen cameos aside, Bassitt’s durability would seem to be his most appealing trait as a free agent for teams looking to solidify their rotations. Whether that leads him back to Toronto remains to be seen..
47. Jose Quintana, SP, 37
Quintana has delivered a better-than-league-average park-adjusted ERA in 12 of his 14 major-league seasons, including 2025, when he helped stabilize an injury-ravaged Brewers rotation. The stuff unsurprisingly isn’t getting any better — he just posted a career-low 16% strikeout rate — but he still seems to have the guile to get outs in a bulk role and thus deserves a nod toward the end of this list.
48. Justin Verlander, SP, 43
It took until mid-July for Verlander to record his first win as a Giant, but he managed to find his groove down the stretch, posting a 2.60 ERA in 72 ⅔ innings over his final 13 starts. Even at age 42 (his birthday is in February), Verlander is still innovating, adding an 80-mph sweeper to complement his traditional slider and curveball, a pitch that performed as his most effective by run value. While his goal of reaching 300 wins feels farfetched at this point (he’s at 266), he pitched well enough in 2025 to earn the chance to continue that chase.
A probably washed guy who used to rake
49. Marcell Ozuna, DH, 35
For the first two months of the season (.883 OPS), Ozuna resembled the impactful slugger he was the previous two years in Atlanta. But in early June, the burly Dominican revealed that he’d been battling a tear in his right hip. He never ended up on the injured list, but his performance plummeted as the season went on, with a .673 OPS after June 1.
While Ozuna’s overall offensive résumé should garner some interest, there are ample reasons for teams to find production elsewhere: He’s a full-time DH in his mid-30s with lingering injuries issues, and he has a history of multipleoff-field incidents.
A first-round draft pick by the Mets in 2016, Kay was dealt to Toronto in the Marcus Stroman trade in 2019 and appeared with the Blue Jays in parts of four seasons. After brief cameos with the Cubs and then back with the Mets in 2023, Kay took his talents overseas, where he became an impact starter for the Yokohama Bay Stars in NPB.
Kay was solid in his first year in Japan but really leveled up in 2025, adding an equally effective two-seamer to complement his 94-mph four-seam fastball and three solid secondary offerings (slider, cutter, changeup). Among qualified NPB starters, Kay ranked fifth in ERA (1.74), fifth in WHIP (0.98), and first in ground-ball rate (55.8%), a stellar résumé of dominance in the second-best league in the world that could earn him a much more significant opportunity stateside than he got earlier in his major-league career.
Kay is one of several pitchers with MLB experience who have blossomed overseas recently ahead of making a return to the majors. Right-hander Cody Ponce (1.89 ERA in 180 ⅔ innings with 252 strikeouts for the Hanwha Eagles in the Korean Baseball Organization) landed a three-year, $30 million deal with Toronto. And left-hander Foster Griffin (2.57 ERA in 315 ⅔ innings for the Yomiuri Giants the past three seasons) signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal with the Nationals.
Cal Raleigh was the big story at catcher last year. Sixty homers, 125 RBI, a runner-up finish in the AL MVP voting, it was a monstrous year, probably the second-best catcher season of all-time (Mike Piazza, 1997). Raleigh is an early second-round pick in Yahoo fantasy baseball leagues this year, and even with some reasonable regression baked into the story, I can’t say that pick is wrong.
But let’s not lose the global picture at catcher. The position as a whole was tremendous last year. Sixteen different catcher-eligible players collected offensive WAR of 2.0 or better, and 17 different players got to 400 at-bats. It’s a mild bump over 2024, but a significant lift over what we saw in the previous decade. Compare last year’s haul to that of 2019, when a modest 12 backstops made it to 2.0 oWAR and just nine collected 400 at-bats.
The position is getting younger. If we look at the 24 catchers with the most at-bats last year, only Salvador Perez (age 35, and a whopping 597 at-bats) and J.T. Realmuto (age 34, 502 at-bats) were past the age of 30. Career/breakout seasons from Raleigh, Shea Langeliers, Hunter Goodman and Ben Rice all made sense — their seasonal ages were 28, 27, 25 and 26, respectively.
Modern managers understand load management better, and often a hitting catcher gets a partial day off through a DH assignment. The 22 busiest catchers last year all saw DH time. This feels like a win-win for everybody — the MLB clubs get to exercise some load management with players at a physically-demanding position, but fantasy managers still get exposure to the offensive stats.
Because of the depth at the position, I’ll probably take my time assembling my catchers this year. In leagues that require multiple backstops, I might choose to be the last manager to fill the C1 slot, but early to the C2 requirement. As always, any strategy can work if you pick the right players.
His Yahoo ADP of 126 is 50 picks cheaper than his global ADP, so appreciate the discount for now. Ramírez showed plus power and surprising speed (16 steals in 19 attempts) as a rookie, and his batting average should rise as his plate discipline matures. Miami’s roster is still fairly anonymous, which often leads to a discount on draft day.
Hunter Goodman, Rockies
The batting average crashed by 59 points on the road, but Goodman also conked 18 road homers and had similar slugging percentages in both columns. The Rockies prioritize him in the lineup, giving him 39 starts at DH. Although the Colorado lineup lacks the depth of past seasons, Goodman at least will be in the top half of the order, where the production is. He’s still a decent value in the mid-80s for Yahoo ADP.
Possible Fades
Adley Rutschman, Orioles
He was a god as a rookie, very good his second year, tailed off in Year 3 and collapsed last season. Okay, oblique injuries were part of the story, but what especially concerns me is that Rutschman’s career arc closely tracks to Matt Wieters; same team, same position. Wieters had his best WAR seasons at age 25 and 26 but was hurt and/or ineffective the rest of his career. I’ll allow my heart to root for a Rutschman turnaround, but I can’t spend fantasy capital on him.
J.T. Realmuto, Phillies
Realmuto still bats for a credible average, but the power continues to fade — he slugged just .384 last year. He also had a 91 OPS+ in 2025, the first time in a decade he’s been a below-average offensive player. Stepping into his age-35 season, it’s a good time to eschew Realmuto, even with an inexpensive ADP. Player development is not always linear, but player decline almost always is.
Potential Sleepers
Francisco Alvarez, Mets
It feels like he’s been around forever but this is just his age-24 season. Hand and thumb problems — and eventual surgery — held Alvarez back in 2025, but when he could play, the bat was solid (122 OPS+, .447 slugging percentage). He’s a lock to hit 20 homers in a full season and he could hit for a plus average, too. The Mets probably have a top-five offense, and Alvarez is an affordable way (ADP: 196) to grab a share of it.
Kyle Teel, White Sox
Chicago needs this kid to make it, as he was the key player acquired in the Garrett Crochet trade. Teel looked the part in his first MLB lap, batting for a .273 average and showing more pop than initially expected. Teel already has a keen eye at the plate, ranking well above league average in chase rate and walk rate. He might be athletic and resourceful enough to mix in 6-10 steals.
Thomas played for the White Sox for 16 of his 19 seasons in Major League Baseball, and he won the AL MVP award with the franchise in back-to-back seasons in 1993 and 1994. Thomas finished inside the top 10 of MVP voting every year from 1991-97, and he was a five-time All-Star during that span.
The “Big Hurt” was also a four-time Silver Slugger Award winner and the AL batting champion in 1997. Thomas finished first in team history in runs scored, home runs, doubles, RBIs, extra-base hits, walks, total bases, slugging percentage and on-base percentage. His 448 home runs were more than twice as many as the next closest White Sox player at the time. Former White Sox Paul Konerko narrowed the gap, but Thomas is still the leader. Thomas is mentioned by name only next to Dick Allen, who was the first Black White Sox player to be MVP.
Thomas also won the World Series with the White Sox in 2005, but played only 34 games that season and did not appear in the championship series due to an injury.
Thomas spent his latter years with the Oakland Athletics and the Toronto Blue Jays after feuding with the White Sox and former general manager Ken Williams over contract and medical issues. Williams is also mentioned in the Black History Month post a few times for being the first Black general manager in the team’s history.
After sitting out the 2009 season, Thomas signed a one-day contract and retired as a White Sox in 2010. The White Sox retired his jersey the same year, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014. While Thomas attended the 10th anniversary celebration of Chicago’s World Series title, he was not present for the 20th anniversary.
Eugenio Suárez is headed to Cincinnati. (Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
Vaughn Ridley via Getty Images
One of MLB’s biggest power threats has finally landed with a team in 2026. Slugging third baseman Eugenio Suárez reportedly agreed to a one-year, $15 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Suárez, 34, is coming off one of his best seasons in the majors, in which he clubbed 49 home runs between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners. The new deal with Cincinnati reportedly includes a mutual option for the 2027 season, too.
Slugger Eugenio Suárez and the Cincinnati Reds are in agreement on a one-year, $15 million contract that includes a mutual option for the 2027 season, sources tell ESPN. The best bat left on the market goes to Cincinnati, where he’s expected to get most of his at-bats at DH.
Power has always been Suárez’s calling card. In 12 seasons in the majors, he’s clubbed 325 home runs. Since 2014, that number ranks seventh in MLB, ahead of players like Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman.
While Suárez settled in as a player who would hit roughly 30 home runs per season, he managed to take his pop to the next level in 2025. Suárez got off to a tremendous start in Arizona last season, blasting 36 home runs in just 106 games. He posted what would have been a career-high .576 slugging percentage with the team and was voted to the All-Star team for just the second time in his career.
With the D-Backs flailing, however, Suárez was traded to Seattle. While Suárez was able to add 13 more home runs with the Mariners, he struggled following the trade. Suárez hit just .189/.255/.428 with the Mariners.
It marked the second time in his career in which Suárez faltered with the team. The slugger — who played for the Mariners in 2022 and 2023 — had a .234/.327/.423 slash line, with 53 home runs, during his first stint with the team. Those struggles led to the Mariners trading Suárez to the Diamondbacks following the 2023 MLB season. Suárez quickly rebounded in Arizona, getting his career back on track.
While Suárez is one of the biggest power threats in the game, his approach comes with a few downsides. Strikeouts have been a consistent problem for Suárez, as he’s led the league in the stat in three separate seasons. That approach has fueled Suárez’s poor batting averages. Suárez is a career .246 hitter, though has only exceeded that number once over the past six seasons. He can make up for that somewhat by taking walks, but he’s not an elite plate-discipline guy and posted a lowly .298 on-base percentage last season. That figure ranked near the bottom of the league among qualified hitters.
That all-or-nothing approach, combined with Suárez’s age, add a fair amount of risk to a player coming off a 49-home run season. The Reds took the plunge on Suárez for his ability to pop home runs at a high rate.
Despite his age, that seems like a safe bet. Expecting much else from Suárez at this point in his career is a risk, one that will only get worse as he continues to age.
Stephen Curry will be joining Olympic teammates LeBron James and Kevin Durant once again, this time at the All-Star Game.
The NBA announced the rosters for this season’s midseason showcase event on Tuesday night, splitting 25 names onto three squads. It’s the debut of another new All-Star format — this one U.S. vs. The World, on Feb. 15 at the Los Angeles Clippers’ home in Inglewood, California.
It’s a concept that Commissioner Adam Silver thinks will tap into national pride for the players and comes at a fitting time. The game will be aired on NBC, which is also broadcasting the Milan Cortina Olympics that start later this week and run through Feb. 22.
The U.S.-vs.-World concept was talked about for years before becoming a reality this season. The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association unveiled the long-awaited plan in their latest attempt to spark renewed interest in the game following a largely panned tournament format last season.
The Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, likely the most deserving name left off the original list of 24 All-Stars, was added to the pool of U.S. players Tuesday shortly before the rosters were unveiled. And that move likely was what sent New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns to the World team.
Towns was born in New Jersey but has played international basketball for the Dominican Republic — his late mother’s homeland.
The NBA had said in recent months that it would adjust roster sizes as needed to ensure all three teams had at least eight players, the minimum required under the new format. Giannis Antetokounmpo is not expected to play for the World team because of injury, which is why that squad has nine players.
The U.S. teams were split by age: The older players were assigned to USA Stripes, the younger ones to USA Stars.
The rosters:
USA Stripes
Jaylen Brown, Boston; Jalen Brunson, New York; Stephen Curry, Golden State; Kevin Durant, Houston; LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers; Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers; Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland; Norman Powell, Miami.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee; Deni Avdija, Portland; Luka Doncic, Los Angeles Lakers; Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City; Nikola Jokic, Denver; Jamal Murray, Denver; Pascal Siakam, Indiana; Karl-Anthony Towns, New York; Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.
Coach: Darko Rajakovic, Toronto.
Schedule
All games will be 12 minutes.
— Game 1: USA Stars vs. World.
— Game 2: USA Stripes vs. winning team of Game 1.
— Game 3: USA Stripes vs. losing team of Game 1.
— Game 4: Championship (top two teams from round-robin play). If all three teams finish 1-1 after the round-robin games, the first tiebreaker will be point differential across each team’s games.
James Harden is moving on to his sixth NBA team in his 17-year career. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
Alex Goodlett via Getty Images
The Los Angeles Clippers are trading James Harden Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Darius Garland and a second-round pick, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports.
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Clippers are trading James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Darius Garland and a second-round pick, sources tell ESPN. Prolific swap of the star point guards. pic.twitter.com/IHhhhabJnX
The 36-year-old Harden is in the second year of a two-year, $81.5 million deal he signed last June when he declined to activate the opt-out clause in his contract. Because of the structure of his contract, he could have declined any trade.
Harden does have a $42.3 million player option for 2026-27, but only $13 million of it is guaranteed.
Harden is in his 17th NBA season, and the Cavaliers will be his sixth since he was drafted third overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2009. He has spent the past three seasons with the Clippers, averaging 21.1 points, 8.5 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.
This season, Harden has played 44 games and averaged 25.4 points per game, his highest since the 2019-20 season. Despite a strong case for his 12th All-Star selection this season, he was left off the roster, along with teammate Kawhi Leonard, topping the list of this year’s snubs.
James Harden is moving on to his sixth NBA team in his 17-year career. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
Alex Goodlett via Getty Images
The Los Angeles Clippers are trading James Harden Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Darius Garland and a second-round pick, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports.
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Clippers are trading James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Darius Garland and a second-round pick, sources tell ESPN. Prolific swap of the star point guards. pic.twitter.com/IHhhhabJnX
The 36-year-old Harden is in the second year of a two-year, $81.5 million deal he signed last June when he declined to activate the opt-out clause in his contract. Because of the structure of his contract, he could have declined any trade.
Harden does have a $42.3 million player option for 2026-27, but only $13 million of it is guaranteed.
Harden is in his 17th NBA season, and the Cavaliers will be his sixth since he was drafted third overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2009. He has spent the past three seasons with the Clippers, averaging 21.1 points, 8.5 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.
This season, Harden has played 44 games and averaged 25.4 points per game, his highest since the 2019-20 season. Despite a strong case for his 12th All-Star selection this season, he was left off the roster, along with teammate Kawhi Leonard, topping the list of this year’s snubs.
James Harden is moving on to his sixth NBA team in his 17-year career. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
Alex Goodlett via Getty Images
The Los Angeles Clippers are trading James Harden Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Darius Garland and a second-round pick, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports.
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Clippers are trading James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Darius Garland and a second-round pick, sources tell ESPN. Prolific swap of the star point guards. pic.twitter.com/IHhhhabJnX
The 36-year-old Harden is in the second year of a two-year, $81.5 million deal he signed last June when he declined to activate the opt-out clause in his contract. Because of the structure of his contract, he could have declined any trade.
Harden does have a $42.3 million player option for 2026-27, but only $13 million of it is guaranteed.
Harden is in his 17th NBA season, and the Cavaliers will be his sixth since he was drafted third overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2009. He has spent the past three seasons with the Clippers, averaging 21.1 points, 8.5 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.
This season, Harden has played 44 games and averaged 25.4 points per game, his highest since the 2019-20 season. Despite a strong case for his 12th All-Star selection this season, he was left off the roster, along with teammate Kawhi Leonard, topping the list of this year’s snubs.
