There are a number of players who will become free agents after the World Series ends. Some will get mega-dollars; others, merely a lot of dollars. All of them, however, will be available. Zack Greinke, Jose Bautista, and Edwin Encarnacion have player or team options and might be on the market. Greinke has a one billion percent chance of opting out after the year he’s had. The three of them are not included on this list, however. These are the guys we know for sure will be out there.
The Upcoming 2015 MLB Free Agent Class
Yoenis Cespedes
A solid power hitter whose hobbies include getting traded every six months, Cespedes can be counted on for 20+ homers and 100-ish RBI every year. His narrative changed this season when he was traded to the Mets at the deadline, and his bat turned into the Thor’s Hammer of baseball as he helped propel them to the division title. In just 230 at-bats for the Mets, he hit seventeen homers and batted in forty-four runs. His OPS with the team was an absurd .942.
His bat got hot at the perfect time to net him quite a few more dollars as a free agent than he might have otherwise earned. He and the Mets seem to go well together, but the Mets’ recent financial history is not one they’d like to brag about and might lead to yet another relocation for Cespedes.
Johnny Cueto
This one should be a no-brainer. Cueto was one of the National League’s best pitchers in 2012 and 2014 (he had a variety of injuries in 2013). He won thirty-nine games in those two seasons while pitching more than 200 innings each time. In 2015, he was just 7-6 for a putrid Reds team but had a sparkling 2.62 ERA and 0.93 WHIP. With free agency and a likely cost-prohibitive contract pending, the Reds traded him to the Royals, where his fairy tale took a cruel twist. He went to a first-place team to anchor their pitching staff and promptly became a terrible, horrible, no-good pitcher. In just thirteen games down the stretch, he went 4-7 with a high 4.76 ERA and a gaudy 1.45 WHIP.
Was it the pressure of a pennant race (which didn’t seem to affect him too much when the Reds won their division in 2012)? A new league? An injury? Some combination of factors? Who knows, but those thirteen starts in a Royals uniform might have cost him a good $50 million off the contract that he might otherwise have commanded. He also fatally injured an untold number of fantasy teams down the stretch, but that won’t figure into calculations for his new contract. If he does well while the Royals go deep into the playoffs, he would help himself greatly. He’s thirty years old with an injury history, but is thoroughly dominant when healthy… except when it counted most for the Royals. It will be interesting to see which team rolls the dice on him, but I am betting it will be a National League team.
Doug Fister
Fister won thirty games from 2013 to 2014 with the Tigers and Nationals, and had a terrific 2.41 ERA in 2014. It’s a shame that his contract wasn’t up then, because he had a horrid season this year, which him demoted to the bullpen late in the Nationals’ equally awful season. He won just five games with a 1.40 WHIP while dealing with injuries and just plain ineffectiveness. He’s entering his age thirty-two season, and will probably end up with a one or two-year deal with a small-market team looking to buy (really) low while hoping he can rediscover his effectiveness.
Jason Heyward
Heyward came to the Cardinals from the nose-diving Braves in 2015 and was poised for a huge year with a top team and his contract ending. He did just fine, but six seasons into his career now it’s hard to believe he’s still going to have the huge breakout year that many have predicted for him on multiple occasions. Still, there’s something to be said for outstanding defense, a dozen homers, and twenty steals every year. He won’t get the $200 million in free agency that some thought he might get before the season, but he’ll do pretty well.
Mat Latos
His agent probably had to go on all kinds of medication this season. Latos was a pretty good pitcher who won fourteen games in 2010, 2012, and 2013 before knee problems derailed his 2014 season. The cost-cutting Reds sent him to the Marlins in 2015, where the knee problems flared up and really affected his ability to pitch. The Marlins fell way out of contention and traded him to the Dodgers for the pennant drive.
So there he was, presumably healthy and on a good team, and all he did was give up nineteen runs in twenty-four innings over six appearances (including five starts). The Dodgers couldn’t take any more, and the Angels signed him for the last week of the season. He pitched 3 2/3 innings for them in relief and gave up two home runs. So it was not the greatest contract-year performance ever. Hopefully, he can prove himself completely healthy and show a team he’s still worth a fraction of the $9 million he made last year. Either that, or he’ll need a superhero agent.
David Price
Price is on the short list for the AL Cy Young Award, is a huge reason why the Blue Jays made the playoffs, and oh yeah, is going to become a free agent at the best possible time. He’s thirty and already has one Cy Young Award on his resume to go with five All-Star appearances in his seven seasons. Extra points and dollars will come if he performs well for the Blue Jays in the playoffs. This man is a major-league pitcher, a winner, and the future anchor of a staff (or current one if he remains in Toronto). He should have his pick of suitors.
Jeff Samardzija
Nicknamed “Shark” because no one can spell his last name, Samardzija became a full-time starter with the Cubs in 2012. In the three seasons since, he moved on to Oakland and then the Chicago White Sox, and managed to lose exactly thirteen games for three straight seasons (while winning fewer than that). In the first half of the 2014 season, he pitched really well and owned a 2.83 ERA before getting traded to Oakland. He continued to pitch well there and went to the White Sox to start the 2015 season, where he turned back into a pumpkin, the kind that rots by the week before Halloween. He finished with an ERA just shy of 5.00 on an incredibly underachieving team. He’s pitched more than 200 innings per year for the past three seasons, but generally not all that well. Before they traded him in 2014, the Cubs offered him a five year contract for $85 million and he rejected it. That would have been $17 million annually. With the kind of year he’s coming off of, he might want that decision back.
Denard Span
He’s a solid player when healthy and can hit close to .300 with a bunch of steals, but the “when healthy” part could be a problem for him. Span is unlikely to return to the Nationals, who have Michael Taylor in place, and will be looking for employment. However he is entering his age thirty-two season and missed significant time last year with injuries. It will be interesting to see how many teams are willing to offer him three- or four-year contracts under those circumstances.
Justin Upton
He will be leaving pitcher-friendly Petco Park, which is utterly to his benefit. Dude’s got power and speed (thought with a fairly pedestrian batting average) and at 28 years old, he’ll be getting a hefty raise from the roughly $8M a year he made off his expiring contract. He’s not a 40-40 guy or anything, but he’s good for 25 homers and 15 steals. He and Jason Heyward could have roughly the same market.
Jordan Zimmerman
A really good pitcher who will probably be leaving the Nationals after their tumultuous year and bank-breaking signing of Max Scherzer, Zimmerman should have no trouble finding suitors. Over the past four seasons, he has averaged fifteen wins with a 3.13 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. Oh, and he’s made no fewer than thirty-two starts in any of those seasons. If any team wants a good thirty-year old pitcher who’s durable and dependable, here’s your man.
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