The best skills available on the free-agent market

By Jared Greenspan | November 11, 2026

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For the second consecutive year, we’ve rolled out a Statcast Hot Stove Tracker at Baseball Savant. It’s a one-stop shop to see all of the top skills available on the free-agent market.

Which players might fit your team’s needs? Let’s dive in.

(Of note, there is no publicly available Statcast data for players coming to the Majors after playing in foreign leagues, like Japanese standouts Teruaki Sato and Kaima Taira.)

POSITION PLAYERS

If you're looking for: The best hitters overall

Expected Weighted On-Base Average (min. 200 plate appearances, for this and below)

This group doesn’t resemble last year’s crop of free-agent hitters, headlined by multi-time All-Stars like Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso. There’s still plenty of value to be found here; it’s just not teeming with household names.

We’re using a Statcast metric -- xwOBA -- that accounts for both the quality of contact made (exit velocity and launch angle) and the quantity of contact made (strikeouts and walks), focusing on the sort of outcomes that a hitter can control. The MLB average in 2026 was .314, with Yordan Alvarez (.442) pacing all qualified hitters.

There’s a clear best hitter here, and that’s Bauers, the 31-year-old who, a few years after contemplating retirement, earned every bit of his stunning breakout. His .371 xwOBA was 15th best in baseball. There’s a sizable gap between Bauers and the second-best free-agent hitter, Arozarena, who just posted his highest xwOBA in a non-shortened season.

Pay attention to Jeffers here. The former Twins backstop garnered plenty of Trade Deadline chatter, and among the 15 best free-agent hitters (by xwOBA), he’s the youngest -- he’ll turn 30 in June. A metric like xwOBA appreciates Jeffers because of his above-average plate discipline and his ability to pull the ball in the air at a high frequency.

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If you're looking for: Smashed baseballs

Hard-hit rate

Bauers and Pederson lead this grouping, too, and if you’re surprised to find the 34-year-old Pederson here, don’t be: Even in 2025, when he had a .323 slugging percentage, Pederson still smashed the baseball, posting a hard-hit rate in the 79th percentile of MLB. Last year, he just got more value out of those hard-hit balls, hitting .490 with a 1.145 slugging percentage on anything with an exit velo of 95+ mph.

This is probably a good time to talk about France, who re-signed with the Padres on a Minor League deal last February, made the team out of camp, and then went on to post a career-high 139 OPS+ (that’s 39% above the league average). A subtle swing change spurred a career-high hard-hit rate, but this didn’t quite come out of nowhere, either. The 32-year-old has actually improved his hard-hit rate in each of the past four seasons, now sitting well above the MLB average (38.7%). That trajectory will play.

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If you're looking for: Smashed baseballs in the air

Barrel rate

A barrel is the best combination of exit velocity and launch angle, the sort of batted ball that typically results in an extra-base hit. This is the sort of contact that the game’s best hitters strive for.

There’s Bauers again, but the other five names are new here. Laureano is coming off hip surgery that derailed his season in June, but he’s a year removed from a big power season. Suárez probably isn’t going to hit 49 home runs again like he did two years ago, although he has enough pop to be a better-than-league-average bat. Hoskins has a 100 OPS+ (read: league average production) in parts of three seasons since returning from a torn ACL. Stephenson has a 106 OPS+ in that span, but he’s a catcher, so there’s some more value here.

Lowe is the known quantity of the bunch, a big-time power hitter despite his 5-foot-10 stature. He just crushed 35 home runs in his age-32 season, his second consecutive year with 30+ long balls. Lowe’s barrel rate is consistently above league average, and his position matters, too -- no qualified second baseman posted a higher barrel rate last season.

If you're looking for: Good defense

Fielding Run Value

How’s this for a group of above-average defenders? This is certainly not a list you would have expected to see at the beginning of last season.

Let’s give a quick primer on what Fielding Run Value actually is. It takes all of the various Statcast fielding metrics -- fielder range via Outs Above Average, outfielder arms, first base scoops, etc. -- and puts them onto one scale. The best fielder, as you might expect, is Pete Crow-Armstrong, who led MLB with 26 Runs.

The vast majority of these players drastically improved their defense from 2025 to 2026, transformations that ought to benefit them in free agency. These are not just bat-first guys anymore. Lowe had the largest year-to-year turnaround by a defender in a decade’s worth of Statcast data. Arraez -- who worked closely with Giants infield coach and noted defensive savant Ron Washington -- had the third-largest leap.

France has been a Gold Glove finalist at first base in each of the last two years, diving into analytics to reverse his poor metrics. He’s one of the best at receiving throws, too. Mullins, 32, improved his jumps and reaction times in center field, because that’s what every single Rays outfielder did this past season. Suzuki’s range in right field graded out as a positive, by OAA, for the first time in his five-year career.

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If you're looking for: Fast runners

Sprint Speed (ft/sec)

The Major League average is 27 ft/sec, and 28 free agents (lowering our threshold to a minimum of 100 PA) are at that mark or better. Mateo is one of the league’s true burners; only four qualified players had a faster sprint speed last season.

Not pictured here is Jazz Chisholm Jr., who had a sprint speed of 28.3 ft/sec and also stole 41 bases last season -- his third consecutive year with 30+ steals. On the heels of a season that fell well shy of his Spring Training 50-50 declaration, speed is unquestionably Chisholm’s best asset.

PITCHERS

If you're looking for: The most effective starters

Whereas we used a minimum of 200 plate appearances for hitters, we’ll employ a minimum of 100 innings for starting pitchers. So, apologies to Clay Holmes, Nick Pivetta and Brandon Woodruff. Expected ERA (xERA) mirrors xwOBA in that it’s based on the quality and quantity of contact, just presented on the ERA scale. It strips the effects of ballpark, defense and luck from the equation, focusing on what a pitcher can control.

Expected ERA

Skubal, as you probably expected, is the obvious standout. After Skubal, there’s a pretty sizable gap, and not a whole lot of separation from there. There’s probably a few things that you’re thinking about, off the bat:

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If you're looking for: The most effective relievers

Let's lower our threshold to a minimum of 50 innings.

Expected ERA

Morejon is the star here. He’s been the third-most valuable relief pitcher in baseball since the start of the 2024 season, behind only Mason Miller and Cade Smith, and he’s the hardest-throwing left-handed pitcher in the game. He’s been more of a multi-inning swiss army knife -- his 223 1/3 innings in that same span are most among all relievers -- and only has eight career saves, but he sure has the results and the stuff to be a high-powered closer.

Speaking of closers: If you’re looking for an accomplished ninth-inning guy, then you’re looking for Bednar. The stocky right-hander has posted an xERA below 3.00 in three of the past four seasons.

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If you're looking for: The best swing-and-miss stuff

Whiff rate (min. 40 innings)

There’s simply not a lot of swing and miss here. Morejon is going to be atop most of these lists, which gives you an idea of how good he is. Fairbanks is a free agent for the second time in as many seasons, but he’s also coming off surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. Keep an eye out for Vesia, who is rather quietly one of baseball’s steadiest relievers. Thanks to an elite rising fastball, Vesia has posted a strikeout rate in the 95th percentile or better in each of the last three years. He owns a career 32.4% strikeout rate in parts of seven MLB seasons.

If you're looking for: The best ground-ballers

Ground-ball rate (min. 40 innings)

Just because there’s not a ton of swing and miss in this year’s free-agent class doesn’t mean there aren’t good pitchers. Case in point: There are a slew of ground-ball artists on the market. We only included the top four here, but there are seven other pitchers -- including Jacob Waguespack, who already re-signed with the Tigers -- with a ground-ball rate north of 50%.

We stopped our list at Blackburn, an erstwhile All-Star who revitalized his career with the Yankees in his age-32 season. He leaned heavily on a revamped changeup that ranked as one of the hardest individual pitches to hit in baseball and saw his ground-ball rate surge from 43.8% in 2025 to a career-high rate in ‘26.

If you're looking for: The best fastball velocity

4-seam/sinker/cutter velo (min. 40 innings)

The most interesting name here is Loáisiga, who put himself back on the map with 67 innings last season for the D-backs. Multiple elbow surgeries limited Loáisiga to just 51 1/3 innings across his final three seasons (2023-25) with the Yankees. But his velo came back, which is vital for a guy who throws three fastball shapes and uses them 58% of the time. That let him do the things that prime Loáisiga did so well -- pounding the strike zone and limiting hard contact. There’s going to be plenty of interest here.

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If you're looking for: Preventing loud contact

Lowest barrel rate (min. 40 innings)

Pitching is fun and weird because there are so many different ways to get hitters out. There’s a ton of value in preventing hitters from crushing balls in the air, and this six-player list covers the whole gamut. Morejon is the hardest-throwing left-handed pitcher. Yarbrough owns the slowest average fastball velo in baseball, at 87.1 mph. But few pitchers are better at preventing loud contact.

If you're looking for: Extreme arm angles

Lowest arm angles (min. 40 innings)

Highest arm angles (min. 40 innings)

This is a fun one, if only because three of the five pitchers with the lowest average arm angles in baseball are free agents. How in the world does someone learn to throw a baseball like that? Well, we’re glad you asked.

On the flip side, there’s Jansen, a potential Hall of Famer who just turned 39 in September and is still chugging along with his extreme over-the-top arm angle.

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