There is an argument to be made that the past three offseasons have seen the three best hitters in baseball reach free agency: Aaron Judge in 2022-23, Shohei Ohtani in 2023-24 and Juan Soto in 2024-25. There certainly wasn’t much debate in any of those offseasons as to who was the top available bat.
Things are not quite so clear this time around. There are plenty of intriguing offensive players on the free-agent market, to be sure, but for the first time in a while, reasonable minds could disagree about who should be No. 1.
That’s where this free-agent edition of the Hitter Power Rankings comes into play. We had 14 voters rank the best available bats on this market, and they all agreed that a Kyle was at the top of the list. But which Kyle? In a close race, it was Schwarber with the upper hand over Tucker. (And here it’s worth pointing out that, because this is the Hitter Power Rankings, our voters were tasked with considering only offensive contributions, with a focus on expected 2026 production.)
Here are the 2025-26 Free Agent Hitter Power Rankings.
Note: Only players who remained free agents as of Wednesday were considered. That excludes Josh Naylor (re-signed with the Mariners), Trent Grisham (accepted the Yankees’ qualifying offer) and Gleyber Torres (accepted the Tigers’ qualifying offer).
1. Kyle Schwarber
He barely picked up a glove in 2025, starting 154 of his 162 games at DH. But again, this ranking is purely about offense, and it’s hard to argue that Schwarber just put together the best offensive season of any free agent. Heck, he nearly put together the best offensive season of anyone, period. Only Ohtani kept Schwarber from his first MVP Award, and he led the Majors in RBIs (132), while finishing second in home runs (56), fourth in slugging (.563) and sixth in OPS+ (150). Most impressively, that represented a career-best season for Schwarber at the age of 32, suggesting that he may buck the typical aging curve that derails many free agents’ futures. Schwarber has been doing this for a while though; his 219 homers since 2021 are more than anyone other than Judge and Ohtani.
2. Kyle Tucker
On one hand, Tucker has been a steady and superb offensive performer over the past five seasons, hitting .277/.365/.514 (145 OPS+). Among all qualified hitters, only seven can top both Tucker’s OBP and SLG during that span. And yet … there remains some feeling of untapped potential here for a player who will only turn 29 in January. Injuries have gotten in the way over the past two seasons. Tucker posted a career-best .993 OPS in 2024 but was limited to 78 games. He had a .911 OPS through the end of May in 2025 before sustaining a hairline fracture in his right hand, which was not immediately diagnosed and which Tucker played through before finally spending time on the IL in September. If and when Tucker puts it all together in a full, healthy season, watch out.
3. Pete Alonso
Over seven Major League seasons, Alonso has averaged 42 home runs per 162 games, going deep at least 34 times in each full season (excluding 2020). He also has been incredibly durable, missing a grand total of 24 team games during that time. Nobody has played more games (1,008) or driven in more runs (712) than Alonso since he entered the league in 2019, and his 264 homers are third over that span. While Alonso had his least productive full season in 2024 before re-signing with the Mets, his second foray into free agency should be more lucrative after he slugged .524 with a 144 OPS+, 38 homers and 126 RBIs this past season.
4. Bo Bichette
Fortunately for Bichette, free agency arrived now and not after a 2024 season when injuries limited him to 81 games and he produced a highly uncharacteristic .598 OPS. In 2025, Bichette went right back to being pretty much the same hitter he was in every other year of his career since he arrived as a 21-year-old top prospect in 2019. Bichette’s .311/.357/.483 (129 OPS+) line was right in line with the .299/.340/.487 (126 OPS+) he carried into that ill-fated ‘24 campaign. That should give teams confidence that ’24 was a fluke, especially since Bichette is a young free agent, turning 28 in March.
5. Cody Bellinger
What kind of a hitter is Cody Bellinger? The answer to that question has changed on an annual basis going back to his 2019 NL MVP season. Right now, that answer is a positive one. Bellinger is coming off his second-best season since that MVP year, having batted .272/.334/.480 (125 OPS+) in his Yankees debut, with 29 homers, 98 RBIs and 13 steals. Still, there is uncertainty surrounding Bellinger, especially if he departs the Bronx; he posted a .909 OPS and hit 18 of those 29 homers at Yankee Stadium, which is well tailored for his left-handed swing.
6. Alex Bregman
Like Alonso, Bregman is back on the market for the second straight offseason and looking for a better deal this time around. He should get one, although that appeared far more certain when Bregman was hitting .299/.385/.553 in late May and looking a bit like the MVP candidate we saw early in his career in Houston. Unfortunately, Bregman strained his right quad at that point in the season and missed several weeks, hitting a modest .250/.338/.386 in 63 games after his return. But given Bregman’s outstanding plate discipline and contact ability, he should still appeal to a lot of teams as he enters his age-32 season.
7. Munetaka Murakami
Here we have perhaps the biggest wild card on the market, especially when it comes to 2026. Murakami, whose posting window is open until 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 22, is only 25 years old, with tantalizing potential, some huge seasons in Japan’s NPB and some sizable question marks about how his issues with making contact will play in MLB. Murakami’s ridiculous 2022 season with the Yakult Swallows hints at his sky-high ceiling (.710 SLG, 56 HR), as does his injury-shortened 2025 (.663 SLG, 22 HR in 56 games). When we look back at this list a year from now, we could end up thinking that Murakami should have been at the top, or outside the top 10, or pretty much anywhere in between. It will definitely be fascinating to watch how that plays out.
8. Eugenio Suárez
If we were doing these rankings at the end of July, when the D-backs traded Suárez to the Mariners, there is no doubt he would be considerably higher. At that time, Suárez was slugging .576 with 36 home runs in 106 games — a run that gave him roughly a full year of prodigious production after his huge second half in 2024. But Suárez, who turned 34 in July, proceeded to struggle mightily in his return to Seattle, both during the regular season (.189 BA, .682 OPS) and the postseason (.213 BA, .700 OPS). Still, even if Suárez settles somewhere in the middle of those extremes in 2026, he will bring some serious thump to a power-hungry lineup.
9. Kazuma Okamoto
Like Murakami, Okamoto is set to be posted by his NPB team this offseason after a decorated run in Japan that ended with an injury-shortened 2025 campaign. But that may be where the similarities end. Okamoto is older (29) and a right-handed hitter, with a more consistent but somewhat less spectacular (though still impressive) track record. He topped the 30-homer mark in six straight seasons (2018-23) and even when limited to 69 games this year, posted a 1.014 OPS with 15 homers. The ceiling here may not be as high as Murakami’s, but there also could be a higher probability of making a smooth transition stateside in 2026.
10. Jorge Polanco
Trying to follow Polanco’s 2025 season induced a bit of whiplash. The switch-hitter raked his way to Judge-like slash lines in both March/April (.384/.418/.808) and September (.329/.380/.634) but also had a .678 OPS in between those two points. All of that added up to a big-time rebound year for Polanco (.821 OPS with 26 homers) following a tough first season in Seattle in 2024. It’s hard to know exactly what to expect from the 32-year-old going forward, but those two huge months certainly create reason for optimism.
Voters: Chris Begley, Jason Catania, Scott Chiusano, Daniel Feldman, Doug Gausepohl, Brent Maguire, Travis Miller, Brian Murphy, Arturo Pardavila, Andrew Simon, David Venn, Zac Vierra, Tom Vourtsis, Andy Werle
