We often focus on free agents who are lined up for monster contracts — indeed, MLBTR’s most recent power rankings were just released today — but there are plenty of players who can command strong salaries even if they won’t likely receive four or more years worth of guaranteed money. Here are ten somewhat under-the-radar big leaguers who seem primed to hit the open market on a high note:
Steve Pearce, IF/OF, Orioles: Pearce hasn’t quite matched his top-end output since moving from the Rays to the O’s, and he has missed time due to injury, but Pearce is still delivering a strong .256/.341/.513 batting line for Baltimore. He’s running out a 144 OPS+ on the year, which qualifies Pearce as a highly intriguing, multi-position on the market to come.
Sean Rodriguez, IF/OF, Pirates: Always a versatile player, Rodriguez has upped his game this year with a career-best .250/.339/.482 batting line over 252 plate appearances. The 31-year-old doesn’t have the track record or slugging upside of Pearce, but he has enhanced his position quite a bit.
Martin Prado, 3B, Marlins: Though he has had a few poor stretches and no longer hits quite as many home runs as he used to, Prado has somewhat quietly hit rather well ever since he was dealt to the Yankees in the middle of 2014. This year, he’s swinging a .319/.371/.432 stick with typically solid glovework, making a three-year deal possible.
Angel Pagan, OF, Giants: Expectations were rather low heading into the year, as the 35-year-old Pagan has dealt with injuries and was coming off of a brutal 2015. But he has responded with a .293/.346/.437 slash and remains a quality baserunner and fielder. Age will be a major limitation, but Pagan should draw plenty of interest.
Matt Joyce, OF, Pirates: Few players have had as dramatic a turnaround as has Joyce, who just turned 32. He owns a rather remarkable .263/.404/.522 batting line with a dozen long balls in 230 plate appearances. Even if the vast bulk of that damage has come against right-handed pitching, he has been good against lefties in limited action and looks to be quite an appealing platoon candidate.
Franklin Gutierrez, OF, Mariners: Speaking of platoon candidates, the righty-swinging Gutierrez has followed up on a stunning 2015 comeback campaign with a sturdy effort this year. He has been more good than great, and has only really been useful against southpaws, but it’s still a nice place to be for a player who had seemed unlikely to be playing at all not long ago.
Doug Fister, SP, Astros: In retrospect, Fister’s 2015 campaign looks more like an injury-plagued down year than the beginning of the end. The peripherals don’t quite support the 3.60 ERA he carries over 157 1/3 innings this year with Houston, but the towering right-hander is in a strong position with few quality starters available this winter.
Joe Blanton, RP, Dodgers: Sure, Blanton’s reinvention as a reliever came about last year, but was anyone sure if it would last? He has now tallied 69 2/3 frames with the Dodgers in 2016, posting a 2.58 ERA with 8.7 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9, and looks like a high-quality relief target entering his age-36 campaign.
Travis Wood, RP, Cubs: Wood’s days as a pure starter may be over, but his swingman potential adds to the value. A 3.35 ERA over 53 2/3 innings is obviously appealing, even if it comes with rather drastic platoon splits (.937 OPS vs. righties, .500 vs. lefties).
Boone Logan, RP, Rockies: We have already talked Logan up a bit as a trade candidate who was (somewhat oddly) not traded. The 3.15 ERA is nice, but the real star is his 16.1% swinging-strike rate — which is accompanied by a robust 51.6% groundball percentage. Logan has finally translated the whiffs into good results after his two prior seasons were wrecked in part by a sky-high BABIP-against.
The impatient Angels couldn’t wait for Joyce and Blanton to adjust and blossom… The kakabrainiacs are still paying Blanton lots of $ to him and he is laughing all the way to the playoffs…
Both were worse than terrible with the Angels. If you think a 2-14 record
and over 6 ERA and Joyce’s below .200 average is worth sticking with, don’t ever apply for a GM job. Also Blanton had a 2 year deal so the Angels are playing him nothing.
Blanton’s record is irrelevant
Most of the time W-L records are irrelevant but when your ERA is over 6 and you’re 2-14 it makes it relevant.
That’s a logical fallacy. It’s still irrelevant.
You’re right, the bad ERA should’ve made it 0-16
They were both worse than horrible for the Angels. Would have waited like longer for Santa Claus to come down my chimney than to wait for these two to turn it around for the Halos.
Jerry Dipsnot is in Seattle, so they will both probably go there. And get big money to
Blanton was given too many chances by veteran-loving Scioscia. He was terrible every team he played with since, until last season.
Joyce should have performed better–I think he was a good signing. But he didn’t hit at all, and does now in Pittsburgh. He may be a player who is more comfortable in a small-marker environment. He would hardly be the first player to suffer from anxiety when he starts playing before 3M fans a year (unlike in Tampa and Pittsburgh). Yankees and Dodgers have seen this plenty of times.
Blanton was only a two year deal. So the Angels are not still paying him.
This has to be the most idiotic statement I’ve ever read. Players careers blowup all the time in all different environments, a few extra thousand fans isn’t going to make them crumble. Money? Sure. But not fan attendance. And why throw the Pirates under the bus? They have arguably one of the smallest populations in the league yet still are in the upper half of attendance, in a pretty small park.
Apparently, you’re not much of a reader.
The history of baseball free agency is littered with stories of players who went small market to big market and crumbled under the weight of expectations.
Yes, PNC is a beautiful stadium with great fans. The team has also averaged 10th out of 15 NL teams in attendance the last 4 years, and much worse the seasons prior.
Tampa, of course, is a horrible environment and relative Witness Protection program for a player on its roster.
No team just waits for veterans like those two to stick around and blossom. Especially when it’s Joe Blanton. Joyce should’ve been at least an above average player for them but he had a down season. It happens. When a team sticks with a player and waits for them to blossom, it’s usually a young player getting their feet wet. The Angels should never have signed Joe Blanton, nor should they have acquired Tommy Hanson. They had Garrett Richards and Jerome Williams in the bullpen that whole time, and when Blanton and Hanson were finally pulled from the rotation in August, and Richards and Williams were inserted, suddenly the Angels plowed through the final 6 weeks of their schedule. They still needed a bit more starting pitching depth, but i said that entire season that if Richards and Williams were in that rotation all season, it would’ve been a much better story. Now Blanton is a reliever. Joyce bounced back. That’s baseball.
Halos are just a bad organization. Bad organizations make bad moves and signs.
Short and sweet, yet also it was indeed unfortunately correct!!
The Angels need to trade Simmons and Trout, and restock their farm system with high impact pitchers and position players. I typically would never advocate to trade a star, but the Angels have really backed themselves into a corner.
That corner, has a very dark and bleak future, yet by trading those two they could have plenty of options for future success!!
That’s a terrible idea, no matter how many times you say that. The Braves’ farm system is full of prospects, yet the team carries worst record in MLB and no guarantees of success in the future.
It’s highly unlikely that any collection of prospects returned by trading those two would replace the 13 WAR they have produced thus far this season alone. Especially since Simmons figured out how to hit, along with his jaw-dropping D–that kind of player isn’t replaced by promise.
Probably best you save your sage insight for the Braves’ front office. Thanks.
The Braves are trying to achieve what the Cubs did. You can’t just rebuild a team overnight unless you have a ton of available money to throw around and a smart front office that scouts correctly.
The Cubs sold everyone on their roster and got great prospects in return but also acquired high draft picks from losing. The majority of their roster was acquired through a rebuild and when the time came they had the Capitol to add Lester, Zobrist, Chapman, etc.
Now, the Angels could try and win with Trout and Simmons. Probably won’t happen with all the money locked up to mediocre ball players. Or trade the best player in the league for an absolute kings ransom and try and pull off what the Cubs did. It’ll take 4-5 seasons but at least there’d be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Their long term commitments fall off a cliff in the next two offseasons. So they don’t have much tied up at all in the long run. They could bounce back next season just by adding a starter and overhauling their bullpen, which is basically what they did after their miserable 2013 season. People said the same things about the Angels back then. But then they had the best record in the Majors, even with a barren farm system. I think there’s a little too much emphasis on farm systems because of the hype surrounding teams like the Cubs and Astros getting so lucky with having so many top prospects pan out for them. One of the things that always gives me hope with the Angels is their ability to find value in minor league contracts and the waiver wire. And they found more this season in Jefry Marte and Gregorio Petit who have both produced for them. That’s one of the ways they’ve been able to contend (for the most part) over the last 5 years despite a thin farm system. The Cubs rebuilt the way they did partially because they didn’t have a Mike Trout. If they did, they likely would’ve tried to contend much sooner. Because you have to with the best player in baseball on your roster. In some ways Mike Trout could be a curse for the Angels as much as he is an asset. I think they can regroup by overhauling their bullpen and getting one starter. The Giants, Orioles, and Rangers have all had starting pitching problems all season long, but all three teams have survived with productive bullpens. Without those bullpens, all three of those teams could be in the same position as the Angels, or close to that. Teams rise and fall every season in this game. The Angels fell this season. They could easily bounce back like any other team. But if they do decide to rebuild in 2017 any way, I would be on board with that as well.
Bad idea. The ticket sales would plummet if trout was traded and you would never get fair value for him
What makes sense to me is drafting 30 players likely to be good pros the next three or four seasons. Hire more/better scouts to help the process, and upgrade the coaching as applicable.
The Halos seem to sign a decent number of players that get released from other systems. At low levels.
Draft and develop won’t solve everything. However, not doing that well has been less than desired.
There’s no crying in baseball. Suck it up. Angels haven’t had a 90 loss season in 17 years. If you want to whine and cry because your team doesn’t make the playoffs, then go watch little league.
Angel Pagan is a terrible fielder with a terrible health record I’d be surprised if he gets more then a two year deal.
Please Bobby Evans do not re sigh Angel Pagan
3 other under the radar guys who are having good seasons are Brad Ziegler, Rajai Davis and Joacquin Benoit. Benoit was terrible in Seattle but hasn’t given up a run since going to Toronto.
With his track record, I never quite understood why Doug Fister seemingly got completely written off by the league after his 2015 season. With his track record it boggles my mind that one bad year knocked him down to 1y/7m plus bonuses while Mike Pelfrey got 2y/16m. Fister’s bad year was pretty much half of a “meh” season in the rotation… and it was still better than anything Pelfrey’s done in ages.
How has Brandon Moss not made either list? He has had one rough season in his career which coincided with a hip surgery and recovery.
Was just about to post this. Can’t believe he didn’t make this list. He did get a brief mention in the top 10 article tho
He may have had only one truly bad season, but he’s only ever had one truly good season. The guys on this list all do something above average, loogys, platoon splits, versatility, speed, or defense. Moss is one of those guys who seems to do nothing above average, but nothing really below average either.
I felt he was a little too obvious for this list. Guess Prado arguably is too but he seems to have fallen off the radar more.
How is [PLAYER NAME] from [MY TEAM] not on this list???
How man times has Franklin Gutierrez been on a list like this already and given up on? Granted he isn’t any glove type at all any longer, much less a glove 1st CF anymore and can barely play a corner position, tho his bat has now become one of those power ones. Kind of a poor man’s Chris Young at one third the price?
Angles could trade Trout to Red Sox …… The Red Sox won’t include Mocanda or Bentinetti though under any circumstances …….. Devers is Off the board to but I’m sure they’d Do Kopech Hanigan and E-Rod or Owens for Trout
Include Lavarnway and I think you are on to something.
The Giants should really get rid of Pagan, his season is better than expected sure, but his defensive blunders drop the ball for me
PEOPLE… Both players needed to make some adjustments on their mechanics …. Blanton with his delivery (which he did elsewhere) and Joyce with his swing (which he also did) … Obviously the coaching staff at that time didn’t help… Look where they are today…
Blanton was apparently also a cypher to the coaching staffs of KC and Pittsburgh–the former cut him, the latter let him leave at end of season. OAK cut him in ST 2014 and no other team took him on the whole season.