2024 Free Agents Depth Chart
There are over 200 MLB free agents this off season. What positions have the most talent available?
Issue #135
After reading several articles ranking and discussing the top free agents during this offseason, I wanted to get a better sense of the full range of talent available. I was surprised to learn just how many players—over 200—are free agents. Not all will get signed of course, a few might end up retiring, and some will find their way to only minor league playing time at some point in 2024.
A few players have already been resigned by their 2023 teams, including:
OF/DH Charlie Blackmon (COL)
C Luke Maile (CIN)
SP Colin Rea (MIL)
RP Pierce Johnson (ATL)
RP Joe Jiménez (ATL)
Then seven players were offered so-called “qualifying offers,” but I’m assuming none of these guys will accept those offers and will elect free agency:
SP/DH Shohei Ohtani
CF/1B Cody Bellinger
3B Matt Chapman
SP Sonny Gray
SP Blake Snell
SP Aaron Nola
RP Josh Hader
So including them, but not including players who are available—and likely to get signed for 2024—from the Japanese and Korean leagues, here is my depth chart of the top free agent talent at each position:
You could certainly argue for different rankings at each position—my main goal in creating this was to get a visual of the generally best players at each position, not focus too much on the ranking order.
And I didn’t include the prominent names likely to be joining MLB from Japan and Korea because it is notoriously hard to predict how well they will do based on their accomplishments in those leagues.
Speaking of such players, you’ll notice that I listed Shohei Ohtani off to the side in his own category. I did this because of his uniqueness, but also because of his injury that it seems will keep him off the mound in 2024. Otherwise I would have listed him first at both SP and DH.
Even without Ohtani, there definitely seems to be the most top talent amongst pitchers, especially starting pitchers (note I added a “continued” list to the left of the diamond). Last year there were several elite shortstops available—this year we have Amed Rosario and Tim Anderson. 2B is also light with Merrifield and Frazier the best on offer, and 1B has guys with major question marks, like Rhys Hoskins who missed all of 2023, and C.J. Cron, Garrett Cooper, and Carlos Santana who had mixed results playing for multiple teams each.
As noted above, there are over 200 free agents this off season—far more than I could fit onto the visual depth chart. So beyond the many names I did squeeze in, here are the others that are listed at the very useful FanGraphs Free Agent Tracker, listed here alphabetically grouped by position:
C
Jorge Alfaro
Tucker Barnhart
Curt Casali
Austin Hedges
Sandy León
Martin Maldonado
Francisco Mejía
Tom Murphy
Roberto Pérez
Manny Piña
Mike Zunino
1B
Jesús Aguilar
Ji Man Choi
Yuli Gurriel
Eric Hosmer
Trey Mancini (LF/RF)
Brad Miller (3B/2B/LF)
Mike Moustakas (3B)
Darin Ruf
Luke Voit
Joey Votto
2B
Hanser Alberto (3B)
Jarlín García (SS/OF)
Tony Kemp (LF)
Tommy La Stella
Rougned Odor
Jonathan Schoop (3B)
Kolten Wong
3B
Brian Anderson (RF)
Hunter Dozier (1B/RF)
Matt Duffy (2B/1B)
Eduardo Escobar (2B)
Josh Harrison (2B)
Jake Lamb (1B)
Jean Segura (2B)
SS
Ehire Adrianza (3B/2B/OF)
Nick Ahmed
Brandon Crawford
Paul DeJong
Kiké Hernández (2B/OF)
José Iglesias
Adalberto Mondesí (3B/2B)
Joey Wendle (3B/2B)
LF
David Dahl
Corey Dickerson
Ben Gamel
Robbie Grossman (RF)
Travis Jankowski
David Peralta
A.J. Pollock
Jurickson Profar
Raimel Tapia
Jesse Winker (RF)
CF
Jackie Bradley Jr (RF)
Jonathan Davis
Adam Engel
Aaron Hicks
Jake Marisnick
Kevin Pillar
RF
Kole Calhoun
Wil Myers (1B)
Tyler Naquin (CF)
DH
Franmil Reyes (LF/RF)
SP
Chase Anderson
Trevor Bauer
Matthew Boyd
Madison Bumgarner
Carlos Carrasco
Johnny Cueto
Zach Davies
Erick Fedde
Chris Flexen
Zack Greinke
Rich Hill
Jakob Junis
Brad Keller
Dallas Keuchel
Corey Kluber
Chad Kuhl
Tyler Mahle
Sean Manaea
Wade Miley
Jake Odorizzi
Drew Rucinski
Noah Syndergaard
Julio Teheran
José Ureña
Julio Urías*
Vince Velasquez
Luke Weaver
Alex Wood
RP
Austin Adams
Scott Alexander
Victor Arano
Jacob Barnes
Matt Barnes
Anthony Bass
Richard Bleier
Brad Boxberger
John Brebbia
Andrew Chafin
Jesse Chavez
José Cisnero
John Curtiss
Chris Devenski
Jake Diekman
Tyler Duffey
Carl Edwards Jr.
Jeurys Familia
Buck Farmer
Shintaro Fujinami
Michael Fulmer
Jarlín García
Luis García
Amir Garrett
Shane Greene
Mychal Givens
Brad Hand
Liam Hendricks
Daniel Hudson
Tommy Hunter
Jay Jackson
Dominic Leone
Jorge López
Aaron Loup
Phil Maton
Zach McAllister
Collin McHugh
Mark Melancon
Keynan Middleton
Shelby Miller
Matt Moore
Jimmy Nelson
Wandy Peralta
Drew Pomeranz
Erasmo Ramírez
Alex Reyes
Joely Rodríguez
Bryan Shaw
Chasen Shreve
Ryne Stanek
Ryan Tepera
Drew VerHagen
Justin Wilson
Nick Wittgren
Out of all of those additional players, a few thoughts:
It will be interesting to see if the Astros resign defense-first catcher Martin Maldonado, or on the other hand, if a team takes a chance on slugging catcher Mike Zunino, who has had four seasons with 20+ HR but owns a .199 career average and is 32 years old.
Lots of potential power at 1B here, but how many of them can revive their careers? And can we envision Joey Votto in a non-Reds uniform?
I included 23 starting pitchers on the actual depth chart above, but even beyond those guys there are some listed here that I could see making opening day rotations in 2024, like Wade Miley, Johnny Cueto, Corey Kluber, Tyler Mahle, Sean Manaea, Jake Odorizzi, Noah Syndergaard, Julio Teheran, Alex Wood, or even Trevor Bauer. Also note that I included Julio Urías in this list with an asterisk, as he would have made the depth chart for sure, likely top-10, except his status for the 2024 season is very much in question given the legal and suspension questions that are open.
And there are a few relievers here who have some late-inning experience, like Matt Barnes, Brad Boxberger, Jeurys Familia, Jorge López, Mark Melancon—though I'm not holding my breath that any of them will get back to locking down saves in 2024.
Then again, there is Shelby Miller. The 32 year-old, former first-round draft pick (2009) had managed a sweet 8.92 ERA in 79.2 IP playing here and there for five teams from 2018-2022 (while showing some promise by generally doing well in the minors during those seasons). Then in 2023 he joins the Dodgers, and proceeds to post a 1.71 ERA in 42 IP, with 42 K and only 19 hits allowed. So anything seems possible!
All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites.
Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.
