With Suárez off the board, let's break down the remaining FA starters

With Ranger Suárez on his way to the Red Sox, the focus turns to the rest of the starting pitching market.

Once finalized, Suárez’s five-year, $130 million deal will make him the fourth free-agent starter to exceed $50 million in guaranteed money this offseason, joining Dylan Cease with the Blue Jays (seven years, $210 million), Michael King with the Padres (three years, $75 million) and Tatsuya Imai with the Astros (three years, $54 million).

Shota Imanaga (Cubs), Brandon Woodruff (Brewers), Merrill Kelly (D-backs), Zach Eflin (Orioles), Tyler Mahle (Giants), Adrian Houser (Giants), Dustin May (Cardinals), Michael Soroka (D-backs) and Cody Ponce (Blue Jays) are also off the board.

Even so, many notable hurlers are still awaiting deals. Here's a breakdown of the remaining landscape for free-agent starting pitchers.

The best available: Framber Valdez

While this free-agent class had no consensus No. 1 starter, a clearly defined quintet sat at the top of the market at the start of the offseason. From that group, Cease, King, Imai and Suárez have all reached deals, leaving Valdez as the last man standing.

Valdez has a longer track record of success than anyone else in that group, having earned American League Cy Young votes in four of the past six years, with a pair of All-Star selections, a 3.23 ERA and 951 K’s over 973 innings (fifth most in MLB) in that span. But given his age (32), he will likely land a deal closer to Suárez's contract than Cease's.

The rebound candidate: Zac Gallen

Gallen’s body of work with the D-backs across 2020-24 was on par with some of the other top starters in this free-agent class. He posted a 3.34 ERA and a 3.43 FIP with 789 strikeouts over 735 1/3 innings during that time -- peaking with consecutive top-five finishes in the National League Cy Young Award voting in ’22-23.

But the righty’s walk year in 2025 was a stark departure from his previous performance, as he notched career worsts in ERA (4.83), FIP (4.50) and strikeout rate (21.5%). Gallen also has Draft compensation attached to him after rejecting Arizona’s qualifying offer, increasing the cost for any team looking to bet on a rebound.

The future Hall of Famers: Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer

With 17 All-Star selections, six Cy Youngs and more than 7,000 strikeouts between them, Verlander and Scherzer will both likely be enshrined in Cooperstown one day. But these legendary hurlers have complicated free-agent cases as they enter their age-43 and age-41 seasons, respectively.

Verlander made notable adjustments that sparked a strong finish for the Giants this past season, but he was still close to league average overall (103 ERA+) after posting a 5.48 ERA for Houston in 2024. Scherzer, meanwhile, was a useful member of Toronto’s playoff rotation in 2025, but he had a career-worst 5.19 ERA during the regular season while missing significant time due to injuries for the second straight year.

Beyond their uneven recent results, both are likely to have a narrow list of preferred destinations, largely limited to contenders. They also won’t come cheap, given their resumes. (Verlander earned $15 million in 2025, while Scherzer got $15.5 million).

The mid-rotation arms: Chris Bassitt, Lucas Giolito, Zack Littell, Nick Martinez

Function over flash is the theme with this tier, and few embody that better than Bassitt. Featuring one of MLB’s most diverse arsenals, the 36-year-old has made at least 30 starts in each of the past four years with a 3.77 ERA and 110 ERA+ in that span.

Giolito used to be one of the game’s top strikeout artists, ranking sixth among qualifiers with a 30.7% K-rate from 2019-21. He was more of a pitch-to-contact guy in his return from Tommy John surgery last year but was effective nonetheless, recording a 3.41 ERA (albeit with a 5.06 expected ERA) over 26 starts for the Red Sox.

Speaking of pitching to contact, Littell had the sixth-lowest strikeout rate (19.2%) among qualifiers across 2024-25. But the righty still posted a solid 3.73 ERA over 61 starts, thanks in part to a miniscule 4.5% walk rate.

Martinez has made 131 appearances as a reliever since returning from a stint in Japan four years ago, enjoying considerable success in that role (2.94 ERA/3.58 FIP). But his solid performance over 61 starts in that time (4.10 ERA/4.19 FIP) speaks to his versatility.

The reclamation projects: Walker Buehler, Germán Márquez, Jordan Montgomery

All three of these pitchers are recent Tommy John surgery recipients -- Buehler in 2022, Márquez in ’23 and Montgomery in ’25 -- who have struggled lately but still offer some upside for clubs looking to fill out their rotations.

Of the three, the 33-year-old Montgomery is the oldest and most recent to undergo surgery, but he’s also the closest to his peak form. In 2023, the lefty had a 3.20 ERA over 32 starts during the regular season and was a playoff star on the Rangers’ road to a World Series title. He spent the past two seasons with the D-backs, earning $47.5 million but tossing just 117 innings with a 6.23 ERA.

Buehler, once considered a frontline starter with the Dodgers, has an 84 ERA+ over 54 appearances since 2022. The Red Sox took a chance on him last offseason, signing him to a one-year, $21.05 million deal, but he put up a 5.45 ERA before being released. He landed with the Phillies for three late-season appearances.

Márquez has been similarly inconsistent, registering an 84 ERA+ over 62 starts since 2022, down from a 116 ERA+ during his peak as the Rockies’ top starter from '17-21.

The veteran innings eaters: Martín Pérez, Jose Quintana, Tomoyuki Sugano, Tyler Anderson, Miles Mikolas, Patrick Corbin, Griffin Canning, Erick Fedde, Aaron Civale

None of these pitchers is going to excite a fan base, but for a fifth rotation spot, you could do worse than one of these experienced arms. Take Corbin, for example.

The lefty looked like he was on his way out of baseball after recording a 5.62 ERA over the final five years of his six-year, $140 million deal with the Nationals. But the Rangers signed him to a one-year deal that guaranteed him $1.1 million last March after losing Jon Gray and Cody Bradford to injuries.

Corbin ended up supplying Texas with 155 1/3 innings of 4.40 ERA ball, bringing stability to the back of the club’s rotation during a year when Nathan Eovaldi and Tyler Mahle were also sidelined for a significant period of time.

Note: Pitchers who are expected to miss most or all of 2026, such as Tony Gonsolin, Nestor Cortes, Frankie Montas and John Means, were excluded from this list.