Spring Training is nearing, but that doesn’t mean Hot Stove action is over. In fact, there are still several notable free agents on the market, players who could potentially be difference-makers for whichever club they sign with.
Here’s the latest on 10 notable names still available:
One of the top starters available on the free-agent market entering this offseason, Valdez is still available, though not for a lack of interest. The veteran left-hander has been linked to the Mets, Orioles, Giants and Cubs, and reportedly had a meeting with the Blue Jays before Toronto inked right-hander Dylan Cease to the largest free-agent contract in franchise history. The Tigers could also be in the mix, as they have a need behind ace left-hander Tarik Skubal, but Detroit has also been rumored to be looking in the mid-tier market rather than the top echelon.
Valdez, who has been a groundball-inducing machine during his career, does have Draft pick compensation attached to him as a result of declining a qualifying offer from the Astros, so that might be a factor as to why he’s still available. It’s also uncertain whether a late-season controversy over Valdez hitting his catcher in the chest with a pitch after giving up a grand slam is a factor in his continuing free agency.
Suárez is coming off a season in which he tied a career high with 49 home runs before hitting one of the most memorable homers of the postseason, an opposite-field grand slam in the eighth inning of ALCS Game 5 to put the Mariners ahead for good.
A fan favorite in Seattle, where he has had two stints in his career, Suárez still seems to be of interest to the Mariners — general manager Justin Hollander said last month that Seattle has “maintained contact with his reps all winter long.” The Pirates have checked in with Suarez, as well. Other fits for the 34-year-old slugger include the Red Sox and Tigers, each of whom has been looking for a lineup upgrade.
Arraez’s free agency has been fascinating. A contact hitter who doesn’t slug but won three straight batting titles from 2022-24, the 28-year-old infielder is coming off a “down” year by his standards. He still managed to lead the NL with 181 hits, but he posted a below-average OPS+ for the first time in his career.
Age and track record are points in Arraez’s favor — he’ll be entering his age-29 campaign this year and he’s a three-time All-Star with a career .317 batting average. On the other hand, his hit tool lacks power and he is not a particularly good defensive player, nor does he have speed. He played first base for the Padres last season, and San Diego still needs a first baseman. But beyond that and a connection to the Rangers earlier this offseason, there just hasn’t been much buzz around Arraez.
Gallen is coming off a difficult season in which he had a career-high 4.83 ERA and a career-low 21.5% strikeout rate. A major reason for that was a curveball that, while usually one of the best in the game, was ineffective last year. Still, the 30-year-old right-hander was an All-Star and finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting in 2023, when he helped the D-backs make a surprising World Series run. And he owns a career 3.58 ERA over seven Major League seasons.
MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand has listed the Angels, Giants, Tigers, Orioles, Braves and Cubs as clubs that have shown interest in Gallen. With several starting pitchers still on the market as Spring Training nears, Gallen’s market might start moving if some other dominoes fall.
Like many other starting pitchers on this list, Bassitt is in the thick of a frozen free-agent market in that category. The right-hander is entering his age-37 season and coming off a campaign in which he posted a 3.96 ERA for the Blue Jays. He’s proven to be durable, making at least 30 starts in each of the past four seasons despite being on the wrong side of the aging curve.
You can never have enough pitching, so as the rotation market thaws, Bassitt should certainly have suitors. Enter the usual suspects — the Mets, Orioles, Tigers, Giants, Braves and Cubs could make a play for Bassitt, who has proven to be a dependable and serviceable mid-rotation arm despite nearing his late-30s.
What’s left on the starting pitcher market, for the most part, is a crowd of mid-range veterans, some of whom have the capacity to be real difference-makers. Giolito, who pitched to a 4.89 ERA from 2022-23 and then missed the entire 2024 season after undergoing an internal bracing procedure on his right elbow, gave the Red Sox 26 starts in 2025 (10-4, 3.41 ERA). That has not gone without notice, as noted most recently by MLB Network insider Jon Heyman, who reported “many teams” being in on the 31-year-old in recent weeks.
But Heyman only mentioned one club — the Tigers — by name, in line with an earlier report by Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press (subscription required) also detailing Detroit’s interest in Bassitt, Nick Martinez and José Quintana. With Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize and Reese Olson already in place, any one of them would quite neatly complete a best-case-scenario five-man rotation, and given Giolito’s ties to Flaherty, the Tigers might have an advantage in a bidding war.
That said, there are few teams that couldn’t use an additional league-average arm with some upside. Among those clubs still dearly in need, as mentioned by MLB Network insider Jon Paul Morosi earlier in the month, are Max Fried’s Yankees.
Atlanta wanted to move Ozuna at the 2025 Trade Deadline but found there wasn’t much of a market for him; it’s been much the same story this winter. His offensive potential is without question, but now at 35, his record is spotty, his slugging percentage just took a dramatic dive (.552 from 2023-24, .400 in ’25) and he hasn’t really played the outfield in years. Ken Rosenthal (subscription required) tied him to the Pirates in December after general manager Ben Cherington expressed interest in adding another “proven bat,” but nothing has otherwise come of that. As for his other options, a potential contender otherwise expected to small-ball its way through 2026 — Cleveland or Kansas City, for example — would make sense.
The incumbent Giants were interested in retaining Verlander, who received rave reviews from the young pitchers he mentored in San Francisco in 2025. But the lack of any real movement on that front — and the Giants’ subsequent acquisitions of Adrian Houser and Tyler Mahle — would suggest everyone has since moved on. That was about all we heard until mid-January, when The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal wrote that Verlander has more recently drawn interest from the Orioles. Nothing was close at the time of the report, but in theory, it does look like a fit — Verlander is a Virginia native who will certainly come cheaper than the likes of Valdez and the Orioles are, as ever, rife with potential and lacking a solid veteran contingent.
We have confirmation that Scherzer intends to pitch in 2026. Unfortunately, that’s really all we have. Speaking to The Athletic last week, Scherzer himself clarified that while he is ready to sign, he isn’t in any rush and would be content to wait until after Opening Day for an opportunity to open up with a preferred club — which clubs have made that list and whether there’s mutual interest remains a mystery, but it’s likely he’d lean towards a club with which he could end his career with a championship. If a reunion with the Blue Jays isn’t in the cards, perhaps that could be the Padres, Phillies or Tigers.
The center and right field markets have been comprehensively picked over; the list of available left fielders, meanwhile, remains mostly untouched. There are plenty of good reasons for that, but the presence of a 2023 All-Star who hit 15 home runs in 103 games last season amid a number of injuries is interesting all the same. Heyman reported on Jan. 20 that the Cardinals, Mets and Yankees were among the teams who had kept in touch with Hays over the winter, the latter two likely positioning him as a plan B to plan A Cody Bellinger.
