10 free agents who raised their stock in 2026

The 2026 season has come to an end and free agency is here.

Tarik Skubal leads the 2026-27 class and there are plenty of other quality players who figure to be highly sought after this winter. Plenty of those players took huge steps forward in 2026, either by refining their all-around game, fixing a major flaw or simply providing an unexpected performance.

Here are 10 free agents who raised their stock in 2026.

Randy Arozarena, OF
Key 2026 stat: 21.6% K rate

Arozarena had a career year across the board, setting personal bests with a .281 average, a .381 on-base percentage, a .484 slugging percentage and 5.5 WAR, per FanGraphs. Arozarena’s always been a big producer so this type of season isn’t all that surprising, but the way he got to career-best numbers might be. He didn’t hit the ball any harder, he chased pitches more than usual and his defense in left field still wasn’t good. Yet, Arozarena dropped his strikeout rate to a career-low 21.6 percent clip (25.1 percent career strikeout rate) and 26.3 percent whiff rate (29.4 percent career whiff rate). That unlocked a new level of offense that bodes well for his future.

Seiya Suzuki, OF
Key 2026 stat: 5 Outs Above Average

Like Arozarena, Suzuki had an established track record of offensive success but boosted his overall production in 2026 with a career-best season. Suzuki’s .841 OPS and 26 home runs were right around his career norms, but he drastically improved his defense, leading to a personal-best 4.5 WAR. After routinely posting below-average numbers in right field and spending most of his time at DH in 2025, Suzuki accumulated 5 Outs Above Average and 14 Defensive Runs Saved in ‘26. Much of this was due to taking much better jumps, which could carry over next year for the 32-year-old.

Jake Bauers, 1B
Key 2026 stat: .371 expected wOBA

What a year it was for Bauers, who was the Brewers’ best hitter during the regular season (.873 OPS and 26 home runs) and had more heroics in Milwaukee’s run to the World Series. Bauers took home NLCS MVP honors thanks to some of the biggest plate appearances in Milwaukee’s franchise history. There really wasn’t an area where Bauers didn’t have personal-best numbers -- he blew past his previous highs in OPS, home runs and WAR (3.6) and backed it up with impressive underlying numbers.

Nick Martinez, RHP
Key 2026 stat: 3.6% BB rate

Martinez signed a one-year deal with the Rays in February and it proved to be one of the shrewdest moves of the offseason. The veteran right-hander had a 3.10 ERA in a career-high 180 innings, made his first All-Star team and excelled in the playoffs, including a Game 1 start in the World Series. It’s been a long, winding road to this point and Martinez is coming off a year where he boasted the lowest walk (3.6 percent) and strikeout rate (15.1 percent) among qualified starters. Given his production and invaluable clubhouse presence, his market figures to be robust.

Luis Arraez, 2B
Key 2026 stat: 12 Outs Above Average

What a difference a year makes. When the Giants signed Arraez to play second base full-time last offseason, the move was questioned given Arraez’s defensive woes in recent years. Arraez not only handled second base well, but became one of the best defenders at the position in 2026. Arraez was worth 12 Outs Above Average and had his usual type of season at the plate with a .310/.345/.419 slash line and a 4.3 percent strikeout rate. In total, he accumulated a career-best 4.3 WAR and transformed his outlook with his impact on both sides of the ball.

Brandon Lowe, 2B
Key 2026 stat: 15 Outs Above Average

Lowe’s trajectory is similar to Arraez’s in 2026 in that he transformed from a poor defender to one of the best defenders at second base. After years of poor defensive metrics, Lowe accumulated 15 Outs Above Average, tied for the third-best mark among second basemen and a top-15 mark among all players. He also bopped 35 home runs and posted an .824 OPS, leading to a career-best 4.9 WAR. Like Arraez, it’s not a given that these defensive improvements will stick, but it’s nonetheless given Lowe’s profile a huge boost heading into free agency.

Ty France, 1B
Key 2026 stat: 91.5 mph avg. exit velocity

France entered 2026 with the thought of potentially retiring if he didn’t make the Padres’ Opening Day roster. France indeed made the team out of camp and proceeded to have the best season of his career, setting personal bests with 3.6 WAR, 21 home runs and an .865 OPS. France maintained his usual defensive excellence and hit the ball much harder in ‘26, most notably shown by his 91.5 mph average exit velocity (88.6 mph career mark). France has now set himself up for a potential full-time role, a stark change from where he was at the beginning of the year.

Trevor Rogers, LHP
Key 2026 stat: 169 2/3 innings

It would’ve been a stretch to label Rogers as injury prone before 2026, but his previous career high in innings was 133 (2021). Rogers blew past that mark by throwing 169 2/3 innings with a 4.03 ERA and 4.0 WAR. On a per-inning basis, that ERA was much higher than the 1.81 mark he had in 18 starts in ‘25, but that’s only part of the story. Rogers’ 3.60 expected ERA in 2026 wasn’t much higher than his 3.40 mark in ‘25 and the lefty had similar strikeout, walk and contact quality numbers. Rogers turns 29 in November and his innings output last season gives him a positive future outlook.

Foster Griffin, LHP
Key 2026 stats: 15.7 K-BB%

The three years Griffin spent pitching in Japan from 2023-25 did the left-hander wonders. Griffin signed a one-year deal worth $5.5 million with the Nationals and was selected to his first All-Star Game before he was sent to the Guardians at the Deadline. Griffin struggled in Cleveland, but the overall numbers were impressive: a 3.60 ERA and 2.6 WAR in 172 2/3 innings. Griffin’s 15.7 percent strikeout-minus-walk rate was roughly middle of the pack among qualified starters, better than the likes of Sonny Gray, George Kirby and MacKenzie Gore. Griffin looks like a legitimate back-end starter who can chew up innings.

Michael Soroka, RHP
Key 2026 stat: 116 innings

Soroka’s baseball story was somewhat tragic to begin the 2020s. After a dominant rookie season in 2019 (2.68 ERA in 174 2/3 innings) that resulted in an All-Star selection, second-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year Voting and sixth-place finish in NL Cy Young voting, Soroka couldn’t stay healthy and didn’t clear 50 innings again until 2024. After slowly building himself back up, Soroka tossed 116 innings with a 3.41 ERA in 2026. Still just 29 years old, that was a huge step toward establishing himself as a real MLB starter again.