One of the most exciting parts of free agency is imagining all these players in new uniforms. Sure, by now you’re used to seeing Juan Soto in a Mets jersey, but remember that initial shock? Or Albert Pujols in an Angels jersey? Heck, Shohei Ohtani in a Dodgers jersey? It’s sort of a Photoshop Hot Stove: Getting that guy on this team is a big part of the fantasy baseball fun.
But you know what else is fun? Reunions. The arc of a baseball career is long enough that it can mean something profound, even lasting, to see a guy who had left a team he starred for return to it years later — and finding the uniform fits perfectly. The canonical example of the last few years is Andrew McCutchen: It felt odd that he ever left the Pirates in the first place, and thus it only felt right when he returned.
So, in the spirit of Cutch, here’s a look at seven free agents and potential fits for them back with former teams. We’ll list these in order of how long they have been apart.
It is a little underappreciated how good Verlander was in 2025. Sure, he only had four wins, leaving him 34 short of that 300 mark he wants, but he threw 152 innings with a 3.85 ERA, making him an above-average starting pitcher at the tender age of 42. He’ll be 43 when the season starts, which would make it even more perfect for him to return to Detroit, where he of course broke in and spent the first 13 years of his career.
The Tigers need pitching. Verlander needs a home. And, frankly, the rest of us need this. How has this not already happened?
The Marlins were downright plucky last year, but they still could use a big bat in the middle of their order after hitting the fourth-fewest homers in the Majors (154). While Ozuna might not be the most reliable option at this point, he has certainly been a big bat at several stops in his career, including in Miami, of course, where he was a two-time All-Star and hit 96 homers in 653 games, including 37 in his final year. The Marlins traded him to St. Louis as part of that outfield purge after the 2017 season, and the trade turned out magnificently for them: They got both Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen (whom they traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr.) from the Cardinals. Ozuna wasn’t the MVP candidate in 2025 that he was in ’24, and he’s obviously limited to DH, but that may help put him in the Marlins’ price range.
If the Cubs aren’t going to sign the best free-agent hitter on the board — and it sure looks like Kyle Tucker will go elsewhere — then why not go after the second-best option? Of all the members of that 2016 World Series team, Schwarber is far and away the best player right now, and seeing him back at Wrigley Field would bring back all sorts of lovely memories and give the Cubs a powerful left-handed bat in the lineup. It would be quite a full-circle moment 10 years after that World Series season. One big difference from Schwarber’s rookie year back in 2015 on the North Side? He is highly unlikely to be a catcher this time around.
Suárez’s return to Seattle at this year’s Trade Deadline after his somewhat frustrating first go-around with the Mariners from 2022-23 was kind of disappointing. (He slugged .428 in Seattle, a full 150 points lower than he had in Arizona — .576 — before the trade.) It’s still possible that Suárez stays with the Mariners, but how about a reunion from further back? The Reds were the team that originally traded Suárez to Seattle after the 2021 season, ending a seven-season tenure in Cincinnati that included 189 home runs. (Prior to that, Suárez also was on the Tigers, alongside Verlander, in 2014.) The Reds already have a third baseman in Ke’Bryan Hayes, but he doesn’t hit much, and Suárez can DH as well. With Suárez theoretically behind Elly De La Cruz in the lineup, there’s protection the young Reds shortstop has never had before. Could Suárez help get Cincinnati back to the playoffs again, like he did in 2020?
Hey, who’s up for yet another former MVP in the Dodgers lineup? Unlike all the other MVPs on the Dodgers roster next year, Bellinger actually won his first MVP with the Dodgers, back in 2019. Bellinger has gone through a lot of permutations since then, from his extreme post-2020 struggles with the Dodgers (leading to him being non-tendered) to a two-year rebound with the Cubs before being traded to the Yankees last year.
He’s not the MVP he was way back when, but he’s still an extremely valuable player — particularly to the Dodgers, who are very much in need of an outfielder or two (including someone who can play center, like Bellinger). It would be pretty wild to see Bellinger go from Dodgers MVP to Dodgers Non-Tender to Dodgers Free-Agent Signing in the span of six years.
Look, if you get a chance to trade for Juan Soto, you have to do it, even if there’s a possibility (and it turned out to be an inevitability) that he might leave at the end of the season. You can’t blame the Yankees for putting King in their Soto package two years ago, but it still had to be frustrating to see him go from a solid pitcher in the Bronx to essentially an ace in San Diego. The Yanks, who could use starting pitching (like everybody else, of course), have a chance to bring King back, and they could certainly use him. Even better: If they sign him, we can all feel reasonably certain they will not trade him for Soto again.
You know what the Mets could really use after that late-season collapse? Good vibes. Who better to return to Citi Field, then, than Iglesias, the unofficial Vibe Captain of the 2024 team, Mr. OMG himself? Iglesias, somewhat improbably, had the best year of his career in ’24, and while it didn’t go well for him in San Diego this past season, well, maybe there was just something about New York that worked for him. The Mets aren’t exactly short on infielders, but Iglesias wouldn’t cost much, and if it didn’t work out for him on the field, what better way to start off a coaching career than letting him hang around with the team — and the fanbase — that appreciated him the most?
