Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
MLB.com re-ranked their starters in top free agent order within all of the free agents in their Top-25. This was the original list back in mid-October that we referenced in our article on October 21.
- Trevor Bauer
Marcus StromanTook the Q.O. from the Mets- Masahiro Tanaka
- Taijuan Walker
- Mike Minor
Robbie RayRe-signed by the Blue Jays for $8 million- Jake Odorizzi
- Jose Quintana
- James Paxton
Here is the revised list:
- Trevor Bauer
- Marcus Stroman
- Masahiro Tanaka
- James Paxton
- Taijuan Walker
- Charlie Morton
- Kevin Gausman
- Mike Minor
- Jake Odorizzi
They removed Robbie Ray and Jose Quintana from their top pitchers and oddly moved Paxton up to their 4th best free agent starting pitcher. Personally, I prefer the MLBTR free agent rankings better, and they won’t change this from their original. Why did MLB.com change their rankings? Supposedly it has to do with adding Charlie Morton whose option was rejected and that made him a free agent. They kept Stroman on their list while removing Ray.
My top picks from this list will stay consistent with Trevor Bauer, Kevin Gausman and Jake Odorizzi. Obviously Bauer is not coming to the Nats and Gausman was retained by the Giants with the Q.O. and that leaves just Odorizzi. While Paxton, Walker, and Morton are intriguing, Odorizzi should be 100 percent healthy for the start of Spring Training.
Currently, these are the remaining free agent starting pitchers and the list is fluid and can change with non-tenders, DFAs, retirements, and signings. Ages are in parentheses and alphabetized for ease of searching:
Brett Anderson (33)
Chase Anderson (33)
Chris Archer (32)
Jake Arrieta (35)
Homer Bailey (35)
Trevor Bauer (30)
Trevor Cahill (33)
Tyler Chatwood (31)
Anthony DeSclafani (31)
Robbie Erlin (30)
Mike Fiers (36)
Mike Foltynewicz (29)
Zack Godley (31)
Gio Gonzalez (35)
Cole Hamels (37)
J.A. Happ (38)
Felix Hernandez (35)
Rich Hill (41)
Corey Kluber (35)
Mike Leake (33)
Wade LeBlanc (36)
Jon Lester (37)
Tommy Milone (34)
Mike Minor (33)
Matt Moore (32)
Charlie Morton (37)
Jimmy Nelson (32)
Ivan Nova (34)
Jake Odorizzi (31)
James Paxton (32)
Martin Perez (30)
Rick Porcello (32)
Jose Quintana (32)
Garrett Richards (33)
Tyson Ross (34)
Jeff Samardzija (36)
Anibal Sanchez (37)
Matt Shoemaker (34)
Drew Smyly (32)
Masahiro Tanaka (32)
Julio Teheran (30)
Michael Wacha (29)
Adam Wainwright (39)
Taijuan Walker (28)
Alex Wood (30)
Jordan Zimmermann (35)
Keep in mind that there could be some non-tender pitchers to add to the current list of 46 free agent starting pitchers. That is almost exactly 1½ per team and some of them will be forced to go unsigned or take minor league offers. Here is the arbitration list from MLBTR and there are a few names like Steven Matz and Vince Velasquez who are not locks to be tendered. Matz’s odds to be retained on a $5 million deal got better when the Mets got new ownership, but personally I would non-tender him.
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.