Depth Chart of the Top 2024-2025 Free Agents

As always, there are plenty of free agents available during this 2024-2025 offseason. What does the depth look like at each position?

Issue #204

MLB.com provided a helpful article that lists all of this year’s free agents sorted by position. And it looks like they are keeping it updated as players get signed, so it is worth booking marking it. For instance, here are some players who have already signed in the past week or two:

• C Travis d'Arnaud (36) signed 2-year deal with LAA

• C Austin Hedges (32) signed 1-year deal with CLE

• SS Kevin Newman (31) signed 1-year deal with LAA

• SP Kyle Hendricks (35) signed 1-year deal with LAA

• RP Justin Wilson (37) signed 1-year deal with BOS

• RP Dylan Covey (33) signed 1-year deal with NYM

In what follows I’ve created a visual depth chart of some of the biggest names—four at each position, plus as many SP and RP as I could fit. The number in parentheses is the player’s 2025 season age (the age he will be as of July 1, 2025.) Then below I’ll give a few comments on each position along with the long lists of other players arranged in alphabetical order. So here we go…

C

No big stars at catcher really, though there are several guys who could be starters in 2025 or at least platoon starters (including d’Arnaud who as noted above already signed with LAA.)

• Tucker Barnhart (34)

• Curt Casali (36)

• Yan Gomes (37)

• Yasmani Grandal (36)

• Carson Kelly (30)

• Luke Maile (34)

• Martín Maldonado (38)

• James McCann (35)

• Omar Narváez (33)

• Jacob Stallings (35)

• Max Stassi (34)

1B

Pete Alonso and Christian Walker are the two being talked about the most, though Paul Goldschmidt could be a great pickup if he can rebound and add to his likely Hall of Fame career. After those three I included Josh Bell in the chart above, mainly based on his younger age (32) compared with Rizzo (35) and Santana (39).

• Ji Man Choi (34)

• Ty France (30)

• Joey Gallo (31)

• Yuli Gurriel (41)

• Anthony Rizzo (35)

• Carlos Santana (39)

• Donovan Solano (37)

• Rowdy Tellez (30)

2B

Not much depth here after Gleyber Torres. Will any of the others listed above or below end up as primary starters in 2025? I suspect some will get playing time, perhaps in platoon situations, but we’ll see.

• Adam Frazier (33)

• Kyle Farmer (34)

• Tony Kemp (33)

• Nicky Lopez (30)

• Joey Wendle (35)

3B

Very much the same situation at 3B, where after Alex Bregman it is unclear if anyone else listed above or below will be a primary starter in 2025.

• Brian Anderson (32)

• Jace Peterson (35)

• Luis Urías (28)

SS

At shortstop there is a bit more depth, but still nothing like the market was a few years ago.

• Nick Ahmed (35)

• Tim Anderson (32)

• Brandon Crawford (38)

• Aledmys Díaz (34)

• Amed Rosario (29)

RF

Juan Soto is of course the consensus #1 free agent this offseason, with likely many deals waiting to see if he can sign somewhere relatively quickly and set the top end of the market. After Soto we have Anthony Santander and Teoscar Hernández who are both intriguing options and will be much sought after I’m sure. The quality and depth drops fast after those three.

• Randal Grichuk (33)

• Jason Heyward (35)

CF

There is neither any star power nor much depth in the CF free agent class. I listed Kiké Hernández at CF and ranked him second because he provides value due to his insane position versatility.

• Garrett Hampson (30)

• Michael A. Taylor (34)

• Aaron Hicks (35)

LF

I would rate O’Neill and everyone else here below the top three RF free agents, but LF does have ample depth for teams in need of some bats in the OF.

• Mark Canha (36)

• Adam Duvall (36)

• Ben Gamel (33)

• Travis Jankowski (34)

• Robbie Grossman (35)

• Nick Martini (35)

• David Peralta (37)

• Tommy Pham (37)

• Eddie Rosario (33)

• Austin Slater (32)

• Jesse Winker (31)

DH

There are some quality DH at-bats available in this free-agent market, though I assume most teams will wait on these guys until they have filled their other positional needs (since anyone in theory can be a DH). An exception could be the Pirates who seem likely to resign McCutchen, so they might just go ahead and do that quickly.

• Matt Carpenter (39)

• Andrew McCutchen (38)

• Daniel Vogelbach (32)

SP

I included Roki Sasaki in the above list even though he hasn’t yet been posted as available from Japan. There could be other players (pitchers or otherwise) from Japan that will come over, but Sasaki is no doubt the best of them (and the only one I know of for now). I ranked him third behind Burnes and Snell, though it is admittedly hard to predict his value.

How you rank the others I included above could certainly be debated. And I included the final three in Kershaw, Verlander, and Scherzer, more as a tip of the cap to their Hall of Fame careers. I don’t expect all three to have injury-free, bounce-back seasons in 2025—but maybe one or two of them will? And no doubt at least a few of the guys below will end up having solid 2025 seasons—the ones I came closest to including in the depth chart above were Matthew Boyd, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, Nick Martinez, Frankie Montas, Nick Pivetta, and José Quintana.

• Chase Anderson (37)

• Matthew Boyd (34)

• Carlos Carrasco (38)

• Yonny Chirinos (31)

• Mike Clevinger (34)

• Alex Cobb (37)

• Patrick Corbin (35)

• Zach Davies (32)

• Anthony DeSclafani (35)

• Chris Flexen (30)

• Domingo Germán (32)

• Kyle Gibson (37)

• Marco Gonzales (33)

• Andrew Heaney (34)

• Adrian Houser (32)

• Brad Keller (29)

• Dallas Keuchel (37)

• Michael Lorenzen (33)

• Jordan Lyles (34)

• Lance Lynn (38)

• Nick Martinez (34)

• John Means (32)

• Wade Miley (38)

• Frankie Montas (32)

• Charlie Morton (41)

• Martín Pérez (34)

• Nick Pivetta (32)

• José Quintana (36)

• Colin Rea (34)

• Michael Soroka (27)

• Ross Stripling (35)

• Julio Teheran (34)

• Spencer Turnbull (32)

• José Ureña (33)

• José Urquidy (30)

• Trevor Williams (33)

• Alex Wood (34)

RP

How you rank the relievers I included above could certainly be debated—I didn’t agonize over how to rank them too much really. And as I did with the three HOF starters, I included Craig Kimbrel (potentially a Hall of Famer?) above too—even though I recognize several of the guys below will no doubt be better relievers than Kimbrel in 2025. It is a long list—plenty of bullpen arms available!

• Scott Alexander (35)

• Matt Andriese (35)

• Shawn Armstrong (34)

• Daniel Bard (40)

• Scott Barlow (32)

• Jacob Barnes (35)

• Matt Barnes (34)

• Jalen Beeks (31)

• Ryan Borucki (31)

• John Brebbia (35)

• David Buchanan (36)

• Génesis Cabrera (28)

• Miguel Castro (30)

• Andrew Chafin (35)

• Jesse Chavez (41)

• Adam Cimber (34)

• José Cisnero (36)

• Danny Coulombe (35)

• Jake Diekman (38)

• Carl Edwards Jr. (33)

• Buck Farmer (34)

• Caleb Ferguson (28)

• Dylan Floro (34)

• Shintaro Fujinami (31)

• Giovanny Gallegos (33)

• Luis García (38)

• Yimi García (34)

• Amir Garrett (33)

• Trevor Gott (32)

• Kendall Graveman (34)

• Tim Hill (35)

• Jay Jackson (37)

• Luke Jackson (31)

• Jakob Junis (32)

• Tommy Kahnle (34)

• James Karinchak (29)

• Joe Kelly (37, 0.8)

• Andrew Kittredge (35)

• Brooks Kriske (31)

• Chad Kuhl (32)

• José Leclerc (31)

• Dominic Leone (34)

• Jonathan Loáisiga (30)

• Jorge López (32)

• Phil Maton (32)

• Tyler Matzek (34)

• Scott McGough (35)

• Keynan Middleton (31)

• Shelby Miller (34)

• Matt Moore (36)

• Héctor Neris (36)

• A.J. Minter (31)

• Adam Ottavino (39)

• Brooks Raley (37)

• Erasmo Ramírez (35)

• Trevor Richards (32)

• Joely Rodríguez (33)

• Joe Ross (32)

• Bryan Shaw (37)

• Lucas Sims (31)

• Drew Smith (31)

• Will Smith (35)

• Drew Smyly (36)

• Ryne Stanek (33)

• Hunter Strickland (36)

• Caleb Thielbar (38)

• Lou Trivino (33)

• Naoyuki Uwasawa (31)

• Ryan Yarbrough (33)