5 free agents who might be better than you think

Even though we’re more than a week into January, the free-agent market has hardly been picked over. Among senior national reporter Mark Feinsand’s top 30 free agents from the beginning of the offseason, 11 remained unsigned entering Sunday, including three of the top five and six of the top 14.

But while much of the Hot Stove buzz is focused on those premium names that will command the biggest contracts, the intriguing options go much deeper than that. For teams in search of ways to upgrade their rosters, even some less heralded players can make significant contributions.

With that in mind, we asked five MLB.com writers and researchers to each pick one unsigned free agent from outside that top 30 list and explain why that player could outperform expectations. These are signings that may pay major dividends for whichever team takes the plunge.

SP Justin Verlander
Verlander’s name is synonymous with greatness. With three Cy Young Awards, an MVP and two World Series titles, he’s one of the most accomplished pitchers in baseball history. Yet as he nears 43 and heads into his 21st season, it’s easy to underestimate what this version of Verlander can still do.

Verlander struggled through the worst season of his career in 2024 while pitching for the Astros, and his first half with the Giants in ’25 did little to inspire optimism. However, Verlander made some notable adjustments that sparked an impressive resurgence last summer. Over his final 13 starts, Verlander pitched to a 2.60 ERA with a 3.36 FIP, 70 strikeouts and 24 walks in 72 2/3 innings.

The biggest change he made? Introducing a sweeper to his arsenal that became a real weapon as the year progressed. The pitch held opponents to a .053 batting average (3-for-57), the lowest mark against any individual offering in MLB (min. 50 PAs). Verlander may no longer be a Cy Young contender, but last year’s strong finish shows that he still has something left in the tank.

-- Thomas Harrigan

OF Harrison Bader
Bader is a useful player through speed and defense alone. You might expect those facets of his game to decline as he enters his age-32 season, but Bader’s 2025 sprint speed (28.8 feet per second) ranked in the 85th percentile and makes him the fastest player remaining on the open market.

He used that speed to cover a lot of ground in the outfield, per usual. Bader has manned center field for the bulk of his nine-year career, but he also played 70 games in left field for the Twins last season before he was traded to the Phillies and ultimately finished with a +7 outs above average on the year -- +4 in center and +3 in left. Bader has recorded at least a +6 OAA in every full season since 2018, and his +76 OAA over the past eight seasons is the most among outfielders.

So, Bader still has fast wheels, a tremendous glove, and is never short on energy. But something funny happened last year: Bader hit really well, too. From 2022-24, his wRC+ was 80 (100 is league average). Over 501 plate appearances last year, he turned in a career-best 122 wRC+.

Is that sustainable? Probably not to that level. Although Bader did swing significantly harder and have a solid 10.2% barrel rate, his expected stats say he was quite fortunate to end with a .277 average and a .449 slugging percentage.

But even if Bader regresses to being a league-average bat in 2026, packaging that with his plus speed and defense can still make him a very valuable part of any roster.

-- Brian Murphy

SP Zack Littell
Littell’s renaissance began in 2023, when the Rays helped turn him into one of the more remarkable midseason waiver claims in recent history. He hasn’t looked back since, becoming a reliable workhorse at a time when starting pitchers are throwing fewer innings and teams are constantly testing their starting pitching depth.

Last year, in his age-29 season, Littell set new career highs in starts (32) and innings pitched (186 2/3). Over the past two seasons, only 20 pitchers have started more games than Littell, who has made 61 starts in that span between the Rays and the Reds. He completed six innings in 20 of his starts last season, something that only 13 other starting pitchers accomplished.

Littell isn’t flashy or overpowering. His average fastball velocity (91.9 mph) was in the 15th percentile of MLB, and his strikeout rate (17.1%) was in the 12th percentile. But he pounds the zone and posted the lowest walk rate (4.2%) among qualified starting pitchers. He’s shown a willingness to adapt, too: He’s ditched the fastball-heavy approach that he used earlier in his career in favor of a five-pitch mix with two fastball shapes and a plus splitter.

This may not be the sort of signing that turns heads, but the team that acquires Littell will feel comfortable penciling him into the back of its rotation.

-- Jared Greenspan

RP Michael Kopech
Kopech isn't getting much buzz this winter -- certainly not compared to what the other top relievers in the free agent class were getting, like Edwin Díaz or Devin Williams or Robert Suarez -- because he had an ill-timed injury-riddled season heading into his free agency. But a fully healthy Kopech can be as dominant as any reliever out there.

In 2025, he pitched in only 14 games and wasn't able to get ready in time to pitch in the postseason. But just remember that when Kopech was healthy in 2024, he was one of the most unhittable relievers in baseball down the stretch and one of L.A.'s most valuable pitchers during its World Series run.

If Kopech had just been a free agent one year earlier, the image fresh in everyone's minds would've been an overpowering fireman with a 100 mph fastball and a wipeout, low-90s cutter. And the thing is, Kopech still has that electric stuff. In the games he did pitch last season, his heater averaged 97.5 mph and held hitters to a .103 batting average, and his cutter averaged 91 mph and generated a ridiculous 53.3% swing-and-miss rate.

Kopech isn't even 30 years old yet, and he's got some of the best raw stuff among all MLB relievers. As long as his nagging knee issues are behind him, and as long as he can keep his command under control moving forward, there's no reason he can't be a lights-out reliever again. Whatever team is willing to bank on that could get a huge bargain in Kopech.

-- David Adler

1B Rhys Hoskins
Injuries have hampered Hoskins over the past few years, the most consequential being a torn left ACL that caused him to miss the entire 2023 campaign. But prior to that, he owned an .845 OPS with 148 home runs over six seasons with the Phillies. He also launched six homers during the Phils’ run to the World Series in ’22.

Since returning to action with the Brewers in 2024, Hoskins hasn’t reached those heights, but he has still been productive. In that first season with Milwaukee, he belted 26 home runs in 449 at-bats (he also missed time due to a hamstring injury). And last season, before a thumb injury sidelined him for about two months, he had a .768 OPS with 12 homers in 82 games.

As Hoskins recovered from the thumb injury, he was supplanted at first base by Andrew Vaughn, whom the Brewers acquired in a June trade with the White Sox. Vaughn produced a .308/.375/.493 slash line with nine homers for Milwaukee, and Hoskins saw only sporadic playing time once he returned, going 1-for-10 over eight games from Sept. 9-24.

What might Hoskins, who is entering his age-33 campaign, do in a full season if he can stay healthy? Despite the injuries, he remains a slugger who hits the ball hard and takes his walks, though his strikeout rate has always been high.

Hoskins’ 46.4% hard-hit rate last year was a career best, his 39.7% sweet spot rate tied a career high (also 2017), and his 11.6% walk rate was his best since '19 (excluding the pandemic-shortened ’20 season), when he led the NL in walks (116). His chase rate was also down significantly from recent seasons -- at 19.9%, it was his lowest since ’18.

If this guy is healthy for a full season, he seems to be a prime candidate to exceed expectations.

-- Manny Randhawa