Five Non-Tendered Pitchers To Keep An Eye On This Winter

Every year, MLB’s non-tender deadline sees clubs allow some of their players who remain under team control to test the open market early, whether it be due to an increasing price tag in arbitration or a need for additional space on the club’s 40-man roster. Previous seasons have seen a number of high-profile players wind up non-tendered, with Kyle Schwarber, Cody Bellinger, and Brandon Woodruff all having been non-tendered at one point or another in their careers only to this year appear on MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents list.

While stars of that caliber who reach free agency by way of a non-tender are extremely rare, plenty of others find themselves cut loose early by their clubs only to make an impact elsewhere down the line. That could be as a regular in the lineup or rotation or simply as a solid contributor off the bench or out of the bullpen. Last weekend, we took a look at five hitters who hit free agency following the non-tender deadline and could be worth keeping an eye on throughout the coming offseason. Now let’s take a look at the pitching side of things, where a handful of intriguing names were recently made available.

Players are listed in alphabetical order, with their age for the 2026 season in parentheses:

Jason Foley (30)

Foley is the prototypical interesting non-tendered pitcher; a reliever with quite a lot of high-end, late-inning experience who was let go after an injury-marred season. Foley made his big league debut with the Tigers in 2021 and has been excellent when healthy. Across 199 2/3 innings of work, he’s posted a 3.16 ERA (122 ERA+) with a 3.22 FIP that more or less matches those results. He’s struck out just 18.1% of his opponents in that time against a 6.1% walk rate, but makes up for it with a 54.1% ground ball rate for his career.

That’s the 14th-highest grounder rate among pitchers with as many innings as him over the past five years, sandwiched between Camilo Doval and Andres Munoz. Foley also has ninth-inning experience, having served as the Tigers’ closer in 2024 and collected 28 saves in that role. The right-hander’s 2024 season saw him take steps back in most of his major peripherals, and a 2025 season lost to shoulder surgery makes him a question mark headed into 2026. He could be a steal on the relief market if healthy and could be controlled through the 2028 season via arbitration.

Mark Leiter Jr. (35)

A veteran relief arm who has rarely found high-end results at the big league level, on the surface Leiter looks like the sort of reliever who frequently finds himself non-tendered over the offseason. Even so, a closer look at Leiter’s profile reveals an interesting relief arm with plenty of upside. The right-hander settled into a full-time relief role in Chicago during the 2023 season, and over the past three years has pitched out of the bullpen for the Cubs and Yankees. In that time, his top line numbers are unimpressive: a 4.22 ERA (98 ERA+) in 170 2/3 innings of work looks like the average middle relief arm. A closer look reveals an impressive profile, however. Leiter has struck out 29.2% of his opponents over the last three years while walking 8.5% and maintaining a solid 45.5% ground ball rate.

Leiter’s 3.13 SIERA over the past three seasons is the 13th best figure in baseball among relievers with at least 150 innings of work, just ahead of high-end relievers like Emmanuel Clase, Tanner Scott, and Luke Weaver. The difference between those relief arms and Leiter comes down to batted ball outcomes; over the past two years, Leiter has posted an ugly .359 BABIP and a strand rate of just 66.5%. If those numbers can normalize in 2026, that positive regression could be enough to make Leiter a solid late-inning reliever. Even if not, however, it’s worth noting that Leiter’s splitter makes him very effective against opposite-handed pitchers: In 104 2/3 innings of work against lefties the last three years, Leiter has posted a 2.49 ERA and 2.57 FIP with a 32.1% strikeout rate. That gives him a higher floor than most non-tendered pitchers as a quality option against southpaws.

Evan Phillips (31)

The Dodgers opted to send Phillips into free agency rather than pay him a projected (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) $6.1MM via arbitration. That’s a decision they surely wouldn’t have made if not for the fact that Phillips underwent Tommy John surgery back in May and isn’t likely to pitch before the second half of the 2026 season. With 2026 being his final year under club control, the Dodgers evidently thought better of paying that price tag (and the 110% tax they’d owe based on their luxury bill) for, at best, half a season of a reliever.

It’s an understandable decision, but Phillips has been utterly dominant since joining Los Angeles. In 195 innings since being plucked off waivers from the Rays back in 2021, the right-hander has pitched to a 2.22 ERA with a 29.0% strikeout rate and a 2.77 FIP for the Dodgers. He served as the club’s closer much of the 2023 and ’24 seasons, collecting 45 saves in that time, and looked as good as ever this year before going under the knife with seven scoreless outings and a 27.3% strikeout rate. Given his combination of dominance and health questions, Phillips seems like a candidate for a two-year deal not unlike the one Liam Hendriks signed with the Red Sox two offseasons ago.

Gregory Santos (26)

The youngest player on this list, Santos has extremely enticing upside but lacks a track record at the big league level. The right-hander’s claim to fame is his 2023 season with the White Sox, where he emerged as a force in the club’s bullpen. He pitched to a 3.39 ERA in 60 appearances that year, combining a 22.8% strikeout rate with a 52.5% ground ball rate to boast a 2.65 FIP and 3.32 SIERA. Santos’ combination of youth and results convinced the Mariners to surrender Zach DeLoach, Prelander Berroa, and a Competitive Balance draft pick in a trade with the ChiSox.

Sensible as the move may have seemed at the time, it did not work out for Seattle. The righty made just 16 appearances for the Mariners over the past two years due to lat and knee injuries. His results in those outings left much to be desired as well. Santos posted a 5.02 ERA and 4.41 FIP. That’s a sample size of just 14 1/3 innings, however, and it’s easy to imagine a 26-year-old getting back on track in a new organization. A team that helps Santos return to the form he flashed with Chicago two years ago would be rewarded handsomely, as he can be controlled through the 2028 campaign via arbitration.

Jacob Webb (32)

Webb has been at least serviceable, if not better, for the past four seasons. He’s been non-tendered in consecutive seasons — first by the Orioles, then by the Rangers — despite logging respective ERAs of 3.02 and 3.00 while making at least 55 appearances for each of those two teams. Dating back to 2021, Webb touts a 3.38 earned run average in 210 1/3 innings. He was sensational down the stretch in 2025, too, tossing 13 2/3 shutout innings with a 16-to-3 K/BB ratio over the season’s final month.

Webb doesn’t throw particularly hard or miss that bats at a premium level. He averaged 93.4 mph on his four-seamer last year in Arlington, marking the second straight season his velo has trended downward. However, he was slightly better than average in terms of inducing chases off the plate (33.1%) and inducing swinging-strikes (12.5%). Neither is an elite rate, but coupled with a career-best 7.1% walk rate and plenty of weak contact (86.6 mph average exit velo, 34.6% hard-hit rate), it was enough to help Webb post a third straight sub-4.00 ERA.

Now up to five-plus years of MLB service, Webb can no longer be retained for additional seasons via arbitration. However, he’s been a solid middle reliever who’s picked up the occasional hold and a rogue save here and there. He was non-tendered despite just a $2MM projection in arbitration. Teams looking for affordable arms to fill out the middle innings on a budget should have interest.