MLB: Top 5 Free Agent Pitchers Left for 2017
By Gavin Lee
With Stephen Strasburg now off the market, here are the top MLB pitchers that will be available as free agents next offseason.
Starting pitching is difficult to find. As the game trends further toward drafting and developing your own talent, fewer and fewer pitchers are hitting free agency. Last year, prices skyrocketed for average arms, seeing players like Mike Leake get $80 million on the open market. Overall, there was close to a billion dollars spent on starting pitching with almost half belonging to two names – Zack Greinke (6/$206.5MM) and David Price (7/$217MM). In 2015, Max Scherzer became a $200 million man, and aging starters James Shields and Brandon McCarthy took home $75 and $55 million respectively.
Teams are trying harder than ever to keep their star players long-term, knowing that mistakes are made constantly in free agency as very few big-money deals work out. The Dodgers gave Clayton Kershaw $215 million a few months before his 26th birthday to keep him in Los Angeles until he’s 32; a deal that looks like a bargain compared to Price and Greinke. The Rays, longtime proponents of locking up young players early (see: Evan Longoria) gave Chris Archer a seven-year deal after starting only 27 MLB games. His $45MM deal (that includes two team options) will see him earn only $20 million total in his age 31 and 32 seasons, ones that should have been prime free agent earning years.
Related Story: Strasburg Inks Huge Deal With Nationals
After the Washington Nationals just inked free-agent-to-be Stephen Strasburg to a seven-year, $175 million dollar extension that kicks in next season, another top arm is off the market. Many expected Strasburg to be the newest member of the $200 million dollar club should teams get into a bidding war this offseason, so the Nationals got ahead of the pack so to speak. They still had to include an opt-out, the newest wrinkle in an ever changing contract structure norm. Strasburg will become a free agent when he is 31 or 32 should he choose to exercise the clause.
Strasburg was the gem of a weak free agent class, and it’s not even close. After him, it gets pretty ugly. Despite that, GMs around the league are sure to dish out way too much money and regret it on Opening Day 2017. Here are the top 5 pitchers set to hit the open market after 2016.
Next: Relievers