Bryce Harper

Top 50 MLB Free Agent Predictions

There’s not much going on right now, so let’s take an expanded look at baseball. Everyone else seems to be doing it, so why not me? I decided to rank 50 free agents and make predictions for where they’d land. I personally am very excited to look back at these and see how ridiculously dumb these predictions were.

Rank Player Position Qualifying Offer? Predicted Team
1 Bryce Harper OF Yes Phillies
2 Manny Machado SS/3B No Yankees
3 Patrick Corbin SP Yes Yankees
4 Dallas Keuchel SP Yes Cardinals
5 Josh Donaldson 3B No Phillies
6 Nelson Cruz DH/OF No White Sox
7 Craig Kimbrel RP Yes Braves
8 Michael Brantley OF No Dodgers
9 Charlie Morton SP No Astros
10 Nate Eovaldi SP No Red Sox
11 AJ Pollock OF Yes Giants
12 Wilson Ramos C No Nationals
13 Marwin Gonzalez UTIL No Astros
14 Adam Ottavino RP No Red Sox
15 Zach Britton RP No Dodgers
16 Hyun-Jin Ryu SP Yes Dodgers
17 Jeurys Familia RP No Phillies
18 JA Happ SP No Nationals
19 Yasmani Grandal C Yes Rangers
20 DJ Lemahieu 2B No Indians
21 Jed Lowrie 2B No Red Sox
22 Andrew Miller RP No White Sox
23 Mike Moustakas 3B No White Sox
24 Daniel Murphy 2B…ish No Twins
25 Andrew McCutchen OF No Braves
26 Adrian Beltre 3B No Rangers/Retired
27 David Robertson RP No Cardinals
28 Brian Dozier 2B No Brewers
29 Kelvin Herrera RP No Nationals
30 Cody Allen RP No Royals
31 Steve Pearce UTIL No Red Sox
32 Asdrubal Cabrera UTIL No Angels
33 Adam Jones OF No Rockies
34 Jesse Chavez RP No Cubs
35 Kurt Suzuki C No A’s
36 Wade Miley SP No Tigers
37 Nick Markakis OF No Indians
38 Gio Gonzalez SP No Braves
39 Anibal Sanchez SP No Royals
40 Jose Iglesias SS No Pirates
41 Joe Kelly RP No Twins
42 Clay Buchholz SP No White Sox
43 Joakim Soria RP No Indians
44 Carlos Gonzalez OF No Reds
45 Matt Harvey SP No A’s
46 Shawn Kelley RP No Mariners
47 Sergio Romo RP No Cubs
48 Greg Holland RP No Royals
49 Freddy Galvis SS No Tigers
50 Ervin Santana SP No Mariners

 

I’ll be honest here. A lot of these are darts. And that’s okay. Anyone who tells you otherwise when doing one of these lists is lying straight to your face.

As you can see, I have the Royals spending some money on pitching. I have a strange hunch that they still like Cody Allen even after his rough season and might be able to get him at a discount. I don’t support the idea as much as I just could see it happening. And a reunion with Holland was a lot more likely before he pitched great for the Nationals, but he’s a guy I think they love and would bring back in a heartbeat. As for Sanchez, he’s a veteran arm who reinvented himself and can help the Royals either fill out their rotation with the idea that the young fifth starter candidates can work in the bullpen or could allow them to shift Danny Duffy there.

As for the rest of the Central, I think the White Sox try to do more on the starting pitching front than I listed above, but ultimately fail in luring a big time guy there, though it sounds like they’re in on basically everyone, so don’t rule them out for Keuchel potentially. My predictions have the Indians kind of filling in on the fringes with some nice role players. I originally had Markakis on the Yankees before they brought back Gardner, but this works out better for him anyway so he can keep his glorious beard. The Tigers probably aren’t going to do much, but a guy like Miley and a shortstop like Galvis makes some sense for them as they’re still in that transition phase. And the Twins probably don’t end up doing a whole lot either, but add some offense and some fire to the back of the bullpen.

I didn’t have the Yankees getting anything after Machado and Corbin, but, as I mentioned, I did originally have them on Markakis and CC Sabathia was heading back to them on the original list I wrote a few days ago as well. And if the Nationals do what I’m predicting, I’d feel pretty good about them if I was a fan of them heading into the 2019 season. I thought about giving them Brian Dozier as well, but went against it.

Otherwise, that’s what I’ve got. I suspect we’ll start to see how wrong I am soon enough.

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