Who Is the Top Free Agent at Each Position?

This evening will mark five days since the World Series came to a close and put a bow on what was an extremely entertaining 2024 MLB season. That means it’s the time of year to fire up the hot stove and let the speculation begin, as free agents will soon be able to negotiate with all 30 teams.

So, while baseball may be taking its usual four-month on-field hiatus until spring training gets underway, there will be no shortage of action across the league this winter.

This year’s class of available talent isn’t as strong as it has been in recent seasons, but there are definitely some names that will generate big headlines and could find themselves surrounded by new scenery next season.

All in all, while some positions may offer stronger names than others, there are still plenty of players available across the board to address every team’s needs for the 2025 season.

So here’s a guide to the top available names to look out for at each position this winter.

First Base: Pete Alonso

PA	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	fWAR
695	34	88	.240	.329	.459	.788	122	2.1

The past few seasons were a multi-layered “will they, won’t they” situation when it came to Pete Alonso and the New York Mets. Will they extend him? Will they trade him?

The Mets did neither with Alonso during his last year under contract, and now that his deal has come to an end, the saga of uncertainty will also come to a close this winter.

New York still has a decent shot at retaining his services, but the choice of where he wants to spend the next several years of his major league career will now be up to Alonso.

That being said, Alonso will enter free agency on a lower note than he probably anticipated.

In 2024, the dangerous slugger posted a career-low .459 SLG, marking a 45-point drop from his 2023 number.

Meanwhile, his strikeout rate rose six percent (to 24.7%) over the past two seasons, up from his career-best rate in 2022 of 18.7%.

Moreover, Alonso’s fWAR in 2024 (2.1) was 1.7 wins lower than his 3.8 fWAR in 2022, which was his best total since his 2019 NL Rookie of the Year campaign.

Despite all of this, Alonso remains one of the league’s most prolific power hitters after posting yet another 30+ HR season. And his 226 HRs since 2019 are second only to Aaron Judge in that time span.

Alonso also posted his sixth consecutive season with a 120 wRC+ or higher while also pairing his 30+ HR with 80+ RBI for the fourth consecutive season.

And despite his 30th-percentile 24.7% K-rate, he still offers a fairly balanced approach at the plate, sitting in the top quarter of hitters in walk rate in 2024 (75th percentile at 10.1%), according to Baseball Savant.

If there were any doubts about Alonso as a free agent, he did his best effort to silence them with an incredible postseason in which he slashed .273/.431/.568 with four homers, 10 RBI and a 176 wRC+ in 58 plate appearances.

Whether or not he had the season he wanted, Alonso is undoubtedly still one of the league’s best power bats, and he left a good impression on prospective future employers with the October he just had.

Honorable Mentions: Christian Walker, Paul Goldschmidt

While Alonso is the biggest get on the first base market, there are a couple of other notable first basemen to keep an eye on this winter.

Christian Walker posted his third straight season with at least 3.0 fWAR, a 119 wRC+ and an .800 OPS. And Paul Goldschmidt, despite a down year in 2024, is still just two years removed from an NL MVP season and only a year removed from being an .800+ OPS hitter.

Second Base: Gleyber Torres

PA	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	fWAR
665	15	63	.257	.330	.378	.709	104	1.7

It’s not a strong second base class in free agency this offseason, but Gleyber Torres is certainly the cream of the crop.

Despite a season of ups and downs, he managed to really turn things around with a late-season hot stretch after becoming the Yankees’ full-time leadoff hitter.

After entering the month of August slashing .231/.306/.357, Torres brought his AVG up 26 points, his OBP up 24 points and his SLG up 21 points by the end of the year. He hit .276 with a .720 OPS in August and then posted a .333 AVG with an .859 OPS in September.

As a leadoff hitter, Torres hit .283 with a .755 OPS in 237 plate appearances in 2024, making him a suitable option for a team looking for a boost at the top of the lineup.

Torres also put together a solid postseason this year with a .744 OPS and a 115 wRC+, which included an ALCS in which he hit .364 with an .809 OPS.

It’s important to remember that Torres has had his inconsistencies throughout his career though.

Just looking at his numbers in 2024 compared to 2023, he dropped 16 points in AVG, 17 points in OBP, 75 points in SLG, while hitting 10 fewer HR, striking out nearly six percent more often, and posting a wRC+ 16% lower. His fWAR dropped by 1.9 wins from 3.6 to 1.7.

But despite the dip in form for much of 2024, Torres has shown he has immense talent across the board. He has four 20+ HR seasons, including hitting 38 homers in 2019. He’s posted five 60+ RBI seasons, and he has three seasons with an OPS of .800 or higher under his belt.

Considering the talent he’s flashed throughout his career paired with the fact he’s the best name on the open market at second, there will certainly be suitors for Torres this offseason, despite his inconsistent form.

And if he can replicate his performance from the last two months of the 2024 regular season, along with the solid postseason he had, he could certainly prove his worth to whichever team secures his signature.

Honorable Mention: Jorge Polanco

Another name to look at beyond Torres is Jorge Polanco. While he had a rough 2024 season with the Seattle Mariners, he’s only a year removed from a string of three consecutive .750+ OPS seasons while posting at least a 117 wRC+ in each of those campaigns.

Third Base: Alex Bregman

PA	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	fWAR
634	26	75	.260	.315	.453	.768	118	4.1

Bregman is truly the only top-tier third baseman in this year’s free agent class. Gio Urshela or Yoán Moncada are the next best options available on the open market.

And Bregman is coming off a season in which he experienced a great mid-season bounce-back to post an overall solid campaign.

After entering the month of June with a .219 AVG and .652 OPS, Bregman pulled himself out of his slump over the last two-thirds of the season to bring his AVG up to a respectable .260 and his OPS up to .768 by season’s end.

In doing so, he proved he’s still one of the league’s best at the hot corner. He finished tied for third among primary third basemen (min. 400 PA) with 4.2 fWAR. He was seventh in wRC+ at 118 and struck out at the third-lowest rate (13.6%).

His 13.6% strikeout rate is representative of the overall stellar approach he had at the plate this season. His K-rate ranked in the 94th percentile across all hitters in baseball, his 12.8% whiff rate fell in the 98th percentile, his 23.6% chase rate was in the 82nd percentile, and he squared up pitches at a 96th-percentile rate of 33.8%.

And if we look beyond this season at Bregman’s career as a whole, he has long been one of the best third basemen in the major leagues.

HR (Rank)	RBI (Rank)	OPS (Rank)	K% (Rank)	BB% (Rank)	wRC+ (Rank)	fWAR (Rank)
191 (7th)	663 (5th)	.848 (9th)	13.4% (6th)	11.9% (T-5th)	135 (T-2nd)	39.7 (3rd)

It’s not often that a two-time World Series champion third baseman with the talent of Bregman appears on the open market. And with Matt Chapman extending his contract with the San Francisco Giants, there will be a surplus of teams vying for Bregman’s signature this winter.

Honorable Mention: None

Shortstop: Willy Adames

PA	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	fWAR
688	32	112	.251	.331	.462	.794	119	4.8

In 2022, Willy Adames firmly established himself as one of the top home run-hitting shortstops after belting 31 homers. It was his first 30+ HR season and resulted in a career-high 4.4 fWAR.

But after a dropoff in 2023, which saw his fWAR dip by 1.1 and wRC+ drop 15 points to a below-average 94, it looked as though Adames might have peaked.

However, he proved in 2024 that he is still going strong. This season proved to be a career year for the Brewers’ shortstop, who hit 32 HR and drove in 112, while slashing .251/.331/.462 with a 119 wRC+ and a career-high 4.8 fWAR.

And while he struck out at a 28th-percentile clip of 25.1% this season, he offset that with an 80th-percentile walk rate of 10.8%. Despite striking out a quarter of the time, his K-rate was actually a career-best.

Adames now has five seasons in his seven-year career in which he’s posted an fWAR above 3.0, launched 20+ HR and posted a wRC above 100+.

Looking at 2024 specifically, Adames also posted 5.9 runs above average in FanGraphs’ defensive metric (DEF) and swiped a career-high 21 bags, showing he’s more than just his bat.

Adames is a complete package. He can hit (and hit for power), he can play solid defense and he can be a threat on the basepaths.

His triple-threat abilities at a premium position will make him a unique candidate in unrestricted free agency this winter.

Honorable Mentions: Ha-Seong Kim, Jose Iglesias

Another name at short to monitor on the free agent market this winter is Ha-Seong Kim, who’s posted an fWAR above 2.5 in three of his first four seasons in MLB since coming over from the KBO ahead of the 2021 season.

Another name to look out for is one of the recent heroes of the Mets’ season, Jose Iglesias, who posted a career-high in fWAR (2.5) with a 137 wRC+ while hitting .337 with an .830 OPS in 2024.

Catcher: Kyle Higashioka

PA	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	fWAR
263	17	45	.220	.263	.476	.739	105	1.6

Catcher is probably the weakest position in free agency this year with no real solidified everyday backstop available for teams to sign.

But that being said, the position is not absent of value. Kyle Higashioka is entering free agency on a high note after playing a huge role in the Padres advancing to the NLDS, hitting .400 with two of his three postseason home runs coming in their best-of-three series sweep over the Braves.

And he had arguably the best season of his MLB career at the plate in 2024, resulting in a career-best 105 wRC+.

Although he only hit .220, he had a respectable .739 OPS, 28 points higher than the league average .711 OPS in 2024. This marked his highest total in that department outside of the COVID-shortened 2020 season in which he played in 16 games and had a .771 OPS.

The 34-year-old backstop also belted a career-high 17 homers in 263 plate appearances in 2024.

He’s not the greatest of defenders at the position, finishing in the ninth percentile in blocks above average (-7), the 27th percentile in runners caught stealing above average (-2) and the 10th percentile in pop time (2.02 seconds).

He makes up for that a bit though by being an above-average pitch framer, ranking in the 68th percentile of the league’s catchers according to Baseball Savant.

While the righty-batting Higashioka may only be a platoon-caliber bat behind the plate, he’s left a good impression on teams in need of another catcher this winter. Plenty of them could stand to benefit greatly from a guy with his numbers along with his valuable veteran experience.

Honorable Mention: Danny Jansen

Another name to monitor in the catching market is Danny Jansen. In a season split between the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox in 2024, Jansen struggled to a .658 OPS in 324 plate appearances. But in two seasons before that, he posted an .855 OPS and .786 OPS in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Outfield: Juan Soto

PA	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	fWAR
713	41	109	.288	.419	.569	.989	180	8.1

There’s no denying that this free agent class runs through Juan Soto, as he’s easily one of the great hitters of this generation.

And Soto is coming off the year of a lifetime in his lone season with the AL pennant-winning New York Yankees.

He finished fourth in the majors fWAR (8.1), third in in wRC+ (181) and OPS (.989), second in OBP (.419), and was one of just four hitters to hit 40 or more home runs this season.

In terms of batted ball metrics, Soto checked every box in 2024. He ranked in the 99th percentile in barrel rate (19.7%), the 99th percentile in hard-hit rate (57.0%) and the 98th percentile in average exit velocity (94.2 mph).

Soto was one of the league’s best in plate approach this season as well. He finished with an 18.1% walk rate, and his teammate Aaron Judge was the only player to walk more often. He also ranked in the 98th percentile in chase rate (18.3%) and the 79th percentile in strikeout rate (16.7%)

Since he stepped into the league as a rookie in 2018, Soto has been one of the league’s most feared hitters across the board.

HR (Rank)	RBI (Rank)	OPS (Rank)	OBP (Rank)	SLG (Rank)	BB% (Rank)	wRC+ (Rank)	fWAR (Rank)
201 (9th)	592 (T-9th)	.953 (4th)	.421 (1st)	.532 (7th)	18.8% (1st)	158 (4th)	36.3 (5th)

It’s hard to believe Soto could step his production up any further, but he did just that this postseason in the Yankees’ World Series run.

In 64 plate appearances this October, he slashed .327/.469/.633 with four home runs, nine RBI and a 203 wRC+.

Like Shohei Ohtani last year and Judge the year prior, Soto will be the market-setter this offseason.

And given the fact that it would be shocking if he wasn’t a finalist (alongside Judge and Bobby Witt Jr.) for AL MVP, big money will surely be on the table for Soto from the biggest markets in baseball.

Honorable Mentions: Anthony Santander, Teoscar Hernández

If it weren’t for Soto’s other-worldly season in 2024, a couple of other big-name outfielders would certainly get some more consideration for the top spot at the position.

Anthony Santander just belted the third-most homers in all of baseball this season (44) to go along with a 129 wRC+. And Teoscar Hernández hit 33 HR and 99 RBI in the regular season and was an instrumental piece in the Dodgers’ World Series championship run with 3 HR and 12 RBI in 71 plate appearances this October.

Designated Hitter: Joc Pederson

PA	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	fWAR
449	23	64	.275	.393	.515	.908	151	3.0

In his first year as full-time DH in his lone season in Arizona, Joc Pederson may very well have had the best year of his entire career.

In 449 plate appearances, he hit 23 HR and drove in 64. He also had career highs in AVG (.275), OBP (.393), OPS (.908) and wRC+ (151), and posted his fourth season with a SLG above .500 (.515).

His 2024 success can be greatly attributed to the way he pummelled the baseball. He ranked in the 93rd percentile in average exit velocity (92.3 mph), the 87th percentile in barrel rate (12.8%) and the 79th percentile in hard-hit rate (46.2%).

That said, it wasn’t all about hitting the stuffing out of the ball this season for Pederson, as he still managed to draw walks with the best of them. His 12.2% walk rate placed him in the 93rd percentile of hitters this season.

Pederson will be a hot commodity for teams looking for premium offensive capabilities from the left side of the plate this offseason.

Honorable Mentions: J.D. Martinez, Justin Turner

While certainly nowhere near Pederson’s level, both J.D. Martinez and Justin Turner are solid consolation options for teams looking for impact in the DH role.

In what was seemingly a down year with the Mets in 2024, Martinez only posted a .726 OPS but still managed to rank in the top quarter of the league in AVG exit velo, barrel rate and hard-hit rate. And in a season split between the Blue Jays and the Mariners, Turner managed to hit .259 with a respectable .354 OBP at the age of 39.

Starting Pitcher: Corbin Burnes

GS	IP	ERA	WHIP	AVG Against	K/9	BB/9	fWAR
32	194.1	2.92	1.10	.225	8.38	2.22	3.7

There are a couple of names that could receive consideration as the top starting pitcher in this year’s free agent class, but no case seems more legitimate than the one Corbin Burnes can make.

Burnes put together a fantastic season in his lone campaign with the Baltimore Orioles in 2024.

In 194.1 innings across 32 starts, Burnes produced a sub-3.00 ERA at 2.92, to go along with a 1.10 WHIP and a .225 AVG against. He also found himself with 181 punchouts in 2024, placing him in the top 10 in the American League (10th alongside Seth Lugo).

And the 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner has been a bill of consistency since becoming a full-time starting pitcher that season.

His 3.39 ERA with the Brewers in 2023 was his highest ERA and his only ERA above 3.00 in the last four seasons. And his low 1.10 WHIP and .225 AVG against this season are the highest of his career as a starter, which speaks volumes about the outright dominance he’s displayed on the mound in recent years.

Year	GS	IP	ERA	WHIP	AVG Against
2021 – MIL	28	167.0	2.43	0.94	.199
2022 – MIL	33	202.0	2.94	0.97	.196
2023 – MIL	32	193.2	3.39	1.07	.199
2024 – BAL	32	194.1	2.92	1.10	.225

The one flaw in Burnes’s game this season was his strikeout rate, as despite putting up 181 strikeouts, he only managed to rank within the 51st percentile in K-rate.

But Burnes more than makes up for that by ranking highly in every other major advanced metric.

K% (Percentile)	Chase %	Whiff %	BB %	AVG FB Velo	AVG Exit Velo	Hard-Hit%	Barrel %	GB %
23.1% (51st)	33.0% (89th)	28.6% (75th)	6.1% (80th)	97.0 mph (91st)	87.5 mph (81st)	31.6% (95th)	6.7% (70th)	48.8% (81st)

And even though the Orioles flamed out of the 2024 postseason in the Wild Card round, Burnes was excellent in the one start he made, throwing eight innings of one-run ball, surrendering just five hits and one walk in the process.

There will be plenty of interest in a former Cy Young winner fresh off yet another Cy Young-caliber season who’s pitched at this level for several years now.

Honorable Mentions: Blake Snell, Max Fried

Both Blake Snell and Max Fried are names that will have heaps of interest this winter when they hit the open market.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner, Snell, is coming off a 2024 season in which he pitched to the tune of a 3.12 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP and a career-low .174 AVG against. He even tossed a no-hitter on August 2.

For Fried, a 3.25 ERA and 1.16 WHIP in 2024 are his worst numbers in the last five seasons, which really shows how the southpaw has been one of MLB’s premier starting arms.

Relief Pitcher: Tanner Scott

G	IP	ERA	WHIP	AVG Against	SV	K/9	BB/9	fWAR
72	72.0	1.75	1.13	.175	22	10.50	4.50	1.6

Tanner Scott was one of the prized names of this year’s trade deadline, and just a few months later, he finds himself as one of the most coveted relievers on the free agent market.

In a season split between the Miami Marlins and the San Diego Padres, Scott was nothing short of incredible.

In 72.0 innings of work this season, he posted a sub-2.00 ERA at 1.75, the sixth-lowest ERA of any qualified major league reliever. And he paired that with impressively low totals in both WHIP (1.13) and AVG against (.175).

While his surface-level stats certainly tell a story of his success out of the ‘pen, his underlying numbers outline the sheer dominance that Scott brings to the mound on a nightly basis.

He ranked above the 80th percentile in nearly every major advanced metric this past season.

Statistical Category	2024 Total	Percentile Ranking
xERA	2.92	90th
xBA	.202	91st
K%	28.6%	86th
Chase %	31.9%	84th
Whiff %	32.7%	92nd
AVG FB Velo	97.0 mph	91st
AVG Exit Velo	84.3 mph	100th
Hard-Hit %	27.5%	99th
Barrel %	4.7%	92nd
GB%	52.0%	88th

And if we look a bit further over the past two seasons (2023-2024), Scott is the leading reliever in fWAR at 4.5, 0.5 points ahead of arguably MLB’s best closer in Emmanuel Clase. In this same time span, his 2.04 combined ERA ranks fourth, his .183 AVG against ranks tied for 9th, and his 1.05 WHIP ranks within the top 20 (20th) among big league bullpen arms.

Scott is also fresh off a lights-out performance for the Padres this postseason, meaning he’s hitting the open market on an even higher note.

In 4.1 innings of work across five appearances this October, Scott pitched to the tune of a 0.00 ERA, a 0.92 WHIP, a 1.32 FIP and a .133 AVG against, while striking out hitters at a 41.2% clip.

The importance of a strong bullpen was emphatically emphasized in 2024, meaning the 30-year-old southpaw will be a prized commodity for any organization in need of an elite closing option to anchor their bullpen in 2025 and beyond.

Honorable Mentions: Carlos Estévez, Blake Treinen

While this year features a deep group of intriguing free agent bullpen options, Carlos Estévez and Blake Treinen are the two arms that come the closest to Scott at the top of the board.

Like Scott, Estévez was one of the most desirable arms at the trade deadline, and after a season with a 2.45 ERA, a 0.91 WHIP and a .191 AVG against, he’s now one of the most desirable bullpen arms in free agency.

Treinen returned in impressive fashion after missing the majority of the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In 46.2 regular season innings out of the Dodgers’ bullpen in 2024, the 36-year-old threw to the tune of a 1.93 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP. He was also an instrumental piece in the back end of Los Angeles’ World Series winning ‘pen.