I will give a ranking of the top five free agents and list three or four possible teams for each player.
1. Shohei Ohtani - He is one of the most anticipated free agents of all time and could make a TON of money. Some people say he could get a contract worth up to $600 million. He should rightfully make this much because he is the best player in the MLB and is of great value, even though he can’t pitch until 2025. He will still be dominant with the bat.
Potential Teams: Dodgers, Giants, Mariners
2. Blake Snell - He is a two-time Cy Young winner that got a lot of strikeouts including 234 strikeouts in 180 innings in 2023. He is coming off a breakout year, but has also had a great career. He has played with both the Padres and Rays, but is a Seattle native so he could sign there. He is one of the best lefties in the Major League.
Potential Teams: Padres, Cardinals, Yankees, Mariners
3. Yoshinobu Yamamoto - He will be playing his first season in the MLB after playing in Japan since 2017 as a right-handed pitcher. He won that league's version of MVP and Cy young 2 years in a row. It is interesting that he and Ohtani will both be free agents after both playing in Japan. He is also only 25 years old so he could have a long big league career.
Potential Teams: Yankees, Mets, Red Sox
4. Cody Bellinger - He is coming off a breakout year in 2022 to get his career back in shape after a couple of bad years. He is really one of the only good hitters in this class other than Ohtani. He has had a solid career also and has won an MVP in a season when he hit 47 homers. He played 6 seasons for the LA Dodgers and he played one year for the Chicago Cubs. He experienced a lot of winning with the Dodgers so he will likely want to go back to a winning environment. He should look for a good amount of money since the class doesn’t have many good hitters.
Potential teams:Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox
5. Josh Hader - Is the top free agent relief pitcher this year and he is one of the best relievers in all of baseball. He has been an all-star five times in his career over seven seasons. He has played for the Brewers and Padres in his career. He has won the Hoffman Reliever of the Year award 3 times which goes to the best reliever in the National League. He should be getting paid pretty well this offseason because there are not many good relievers this year. He is coming off of a good year for the Padres when he got 33 saves and 85 strikeouts in 56.1 innings.
Potential teams: Rangers,Yankees, and the Dodgers
The offseason has begun and people should start to sign soon and I hope you enjoy my rankings and predictions.
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