Free Agent Rankings: The Next 10

MLBTR published our ranking/contract predictions for the Top 50 Free Agents on Monday. We included an unranked list of an additional 24 honorable mentions, players who garnered some consideration for the back of the list but found themselves just off. The expectation is that all those players will find big league contracts, potentially with a path to eight-figure guarantees. While the honorable mentions on the Top 50 are listed alphabetically, we loosely ranked the next few players in preparation for list publishing. An extension or option pickup has the potential to remove a player or two from the class at the last minute, so we’ll have a few of the honorable mentions queued up in case they need to grab one of the last spots. There’s very little separating the #40 player in most free agent classes from player #60, as everyone in that range is expected to sign a one- or two-year deal at a mid-level salary. Let’s run through the names who just missed the cut. 51. Jack Flaherty, RHP Flaherty was penciled into the top 50 until the Padres somewhat surprisingly declined their option on Nick Pivetta, who drew into the #28 spot. Flaherty had an injury-shortened year, as a left peroneal strain (ankle/foot) and right flexor inflammation limited him to 20 appearances. He missed essentially the final two months of the season, only returning for a two-inning relief outing in the final day. The 31-year-old righty finished the year with a 4.48 earned run average across 88 1/3 innings. He had an ugly first couple months but was pitching well in June and July before the forearm injury. Flahery struck out an above-average 26% of opponents with an 11% swinging strike rate, giving him a higher ceiling than most of the back-end starters in the HM tier. He’s probably looking at a one-year pillow contract but could land in the $10-12MM range, similar to Dustin May at this time last year. 52. Gleyber Torres, 2B Flaherty’s former Detroit teammate was the top position player to miss the cut. Torres is entering his age-30 season and coming off a decent year at the plate. He hit .260/.364/.363 across 420 plate appearances, trailing only Brice Turang at the position (min. 400 PAs) in on-base percentage. Torres drew walks at a career-high 13.6% clip against a modest 19.3% strikeout rate. Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco. Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony. Remove ads and support our writers. Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker View Comments (0)