The Yankees and Giants will open the 2026 MLB season on March 25. We’ll be counting down to that date with our annual preview series, with each story looking ahead to the coming season by breaking down a particular topic.
Today: The best pending free agent in each division
When right-hander Zac Gallen inked his deal to return to the Diamondbacks, he became the 29th player who had been ranked on Mark Feinsand’s list of the top 30 free agents to find a home. Only fellow righty Lucas Giolito, at No. 30, remains on the market. But with all due respect to Giolito’s ongoing free agency, let’s take this opportunity to look ahead to next offseason’s free-agent class.
We’re not going to do a deep dive or anything -- that’s Feinsand’s territory. (And for now, you can see a longer list of potential 2026-27 free agents right here.) But it is worth noting, as we head into the 2026 season, who exactly are the most significant players on the verge of free agency, and how they may end up affecting division races. Will these players have big walk years that are key to a postseason push? Or will they wind up as Trade Deadline targets if things go awry?
Here’s a look at one particularly intriguing 2026-27 free agent in each division, an exercise that has revealed that this might be a very pitching-oriented class. For the sake of clarity and simplicity, we are excluding players who have options or opt-outs for 2027 and therefore could wind up never reaching the open market.
AL East: Trevor Rogers, SP, Orioles
The Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr., a self-described 50-50 hopeful in 2026, is probably the biggest pending free-agent name in this division, but Rogers may be the best player, and almost certainly the most important. It wasn’t long ago that sending Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby to Miami for Rogers looked like an absolute disaster for the Orioles. Now, though, Rogers looks like their ace after posting a 1.81 ERA over 18 starts for Baltimore in 2025.
The Orioles are a team with big dreams this year, dreams that very much rely on Rogers pitching like a top-of-the-rotation arm again. Do that in a pennant chase, and even the postseason, and Rogers could end up being the second-biggest name on the market (behind another lefty mentioned below). And if the Orioles flop again? Well, Rogers could make a huge difference for someone at the Deadline.
AL Central: Tarik Skubal, SP, Tigers
This would be, uh, the biggest name on the market. Skubal trade rumors have been swirling for some time now, but now that he’s still here, coming off consecutive Cy Young Awards, he looks primed to get the Tigers that division title that has proven so elusive.
Skubal will certainly have some help from new additions Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander, but, as always, the Tigers will go only as far as Skubal can take them. And, like with the Orioles, if it all goes wrong in the first half … if there’s ever a pending free agent who could restock your farm system at the Deadline, it’s Skubal.
AL West: Randy Arozarena, LF, Mariners
Doesn’t it feel like Arozarena was just taking the postseason by storm and then following that up by winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award? Well, now he has more than five years of big league service time, setting him up to hit free agency after this season. He couldn’t be in a better place to showcase his stuff. The Mariners are a team with serious World Series aspirations, and Arozarena is lined up to rake in RBI opportunities behind Brendan Donovan, Julio Rodríguez, Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor.
It also helps that Arozarena may well be the best outfielder on the market next offseason. Sure, the fact that he’ll be heading into his age-32 season won’t help. (Not to mention it’ll make us all feel a little elderly.) But as we’re likely to see in Seattle this year, he’s got plenty, plenty left.
NL East: Chris Sale, SP, Braves
Freddy Peralta is another option here, but he just got to the Mets and, well, hasn’t won a Cy Young Award or been one of the best pitchers in baseball for the past decade. So we’ll go with Sale, even though he’ll be turning 37 on March 30. It is kind of amazing that, after five years of so many injury issues, he rebounded to win that long-awaited Cy Young in 2024, doing so in large part because of surprising durability. Even in a year like 2025, when he missed a month due to injury, he threw more innings (125 2/3) than he did in any year from 2020-23.
The nice thing for Sale is that he’s got two routes he can take to hitting it big in what would, surprisingly, be his first foray into free agency. (Sale previously signed three extensions – one apiece with the White Sox, Red Sox and Braves.) He can be durable again, or he can be the dominant figure we’ve seen during his prime years. Either will be extremely valuable for whatever team signs him next. And if he’s both this year? Look out.
NL Central: Brandon Woodruff, SP, Brewers
Speaking of pitchers who have missed whole seasons with injuries, Woodruff made only 12 starts in 2025, throwing a mere 64 2/3 innings after missing all of 2024 and the majority of 2023. But they were 12 excellent starts, as he put together a 7-2 record and a 3.20 ERA, and his 11.6 strikeouts per nine innings was the highest mark of his career.
That’s pretty exciting, even before you remember he has a career 3.10 ERA over eight seasons. That’s why the Brewers made Woodruff the one-year qualifying offer at the start of the offseason, and that $22.025 million salary will look like a bargain if he can be the Woodruff of 2021, who finished fifth in the NL Cy Young Award voting. If Woodruff enjoys his first mostly healthy season since '22, he’ll be set up well to enter the open market.
NL West: Robbie Ray, SP, Giants
I suppose we could have gone with Gallen or Luis Arráez here, but those guys were just free agents, like, a month ago. So instead, let’s go with Robbie Ray, who won the AL Cy Young Award in 2021 with the Blue Jays. The lefty entered free agency on that high note and signed with the Mariners, but after one solid season in Seattle -- and you may be noticing a theme here -- he got hurt and barely pitched for two years.
Ray recovered to make the All-Star Game last year with San Francisco, but his ERA in the second half (5.54) was nearly three runs higher than it was in the first half (2.65), and he will turn 35 in October. There aren’t any long-term deals coming in Ray’s future, but if he can be a key part of a Giants rotation that looks primed to surprise this year, he could certainly do well on a shorter-term deal.