MLB's Top Remaining Free Agents

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Jan 5, 2012

MLB's Top Remaining Free Agents

Prince Fielder

CURRENT TEAM: BREWERS BEST FIT: CUBS Fielder didn't exactly bid adieu to Milwaukee after the Brewers' NLCS elimination, but there was a lot of past tense in his final press conference. "Playing here was awesome," he said. The burly young slugger could move to the Cubs, who are starved for offense -- their 654 runs in 2011 were their fewest since the strike-shortened 1994 season. Fielder would become the face of new GM Theo Epstein's top-to-bottom rebuilding effort.

Carlos Pe&#241;a

CURRENT TEAM: CUBS BEST FIT: BREWERS Pena's batting average will always be disturbingly low, and his strikeout rate disturbingly high (he ranked in his league's top six in the latter category for the fifth straight season in 2011). In his one year with the Cubs, however, he did what he used to for the Rays, which was to produce runs and play a solid first base. He wouldn't come close to replacing Fielder in the Brewers' lineup, and he wouldn't protect Braun in quite the same way, but he represents the market's best option for Milwaukee.

Ryan Madson

CURRENT TEAM: PHILLIES BEST FIT: PHILLIES Madson, formerly a top setup man, became a full-time closer for the first time in 2011, and he responded well, converting 32 of his 34 chances. That season makes him the third-best closer on the free-agent market -- but, like the two in front of him, he is likely to stay put.

Edwin Jackson

CURRENT TEAM: CARDINALS BEST FIT: MARINERS To this point in his career, Jackson has been good enough to be desired, but not so good as to make himself indisposable -- hence the face that he has been traded six times. Even so, Jackson is still only 28, making him the youngest starter on the market, and he throws a fastball that averages nearly 95 miles an hour and he probably hasn't yet peaked. That peak could come with the Mariners, and in their pitcher-friendly home ballpark.

Roy Oswalt

CURRENT TEAM: PHILLIES BEST FIT: RANGERS The Phillies declined Oswalt's $16 million option, and that could well mean that their four-ace rotation -- which failed, shockingly, to get them out of the NLDS -- will next season be reduced to a three-ace model. Oswalt could return to the Phillies, but the Rangers -- who were, arguably, a No. 1 starter short of their first World Series title -- could want him even more, and the Mississippi native might enjoy playing for a contender in Texas.

Hiroki Kuroda

CURRENT TEAM: DODGERS BEST FIT: DODGERS Kuroda had the best of his four strong seasons with the Dodgers last season, in terms of wins, ERA and innings pitched, and he would be a welcome presence on any staff. Just like last year, however, Kuroda has indicated that he desires to pitch only for the Dodgers or in Japan -- and the Dodgers are likely to do all they can to keep a quality player who actually wants to play for them from walking away.

Johnny Damon

CURRENT TEAM: RAYS BEST FIT: DIAMONDBACKS Damon's decline has been gentle, and even at his advanced age he remains a relatively productive player. While he is best-suited to a DH role, in which he excelled in his first season with the Rays in 2011, the extremely young Diamondbacks could use a veteran leader and a leftfielder. Damon's defense wouldn't be much of a help, but his character and his bat would, as an upgrade over Gerardo Parra.

Derrek Lee

CURRENT TEAM: PIRATES BEST FIT: TWINS A broken wrist limited Lee to 113 games played in a season he split between Baltimore and Pittsburgh, but after he returned from the injury he showed that he can still hit, batting .337 with seven home runs and 18 RBIs in 28 games as a Pirates. The Twins need someone who can DH and provide an acceptable back-up to Justin Morneau should Morneau's injury woes persist, and that player could be Lee.

Javier Vazquez

CURRENT TEAM: MARLINS BEST FIT: MARLINS Vazquez seemed headed for certain retirement as late as June 11, when his ERA, after 13 starts, stood at 7.09. After that, though, he went on a tear, and allowed more than three earned runs in just one of his final 19 outings. Vazquez might still retire, but if he doesn't he should end up back with the Marlins, who will be playing in a new ballpark, will have their rotation bolstered by the return of injured ace Josh Johnson and who could contend in the N.L. East.

Wilson Betemit

CURRENT TEAM: TIGERS BEST FIT: DODGERS Dodgers manager Don Mattingly wants a hitter, and while the club is in no position to pay for a star to bolster a lineup that is weak aside from Matt Kemp, they could afford Betemit, a perfectly productive player -- and one-time Dodger -- who will benefit from an extremely thin third basemen market.

Paul Maholm

CURRENT TEAM: PIRATES BEST FIT: RED SOX Maholm had the best season of his career in 2011, but still it wasn't good enough for the Pirates to pick up his $9.75 million option. That put the lefthanded sinkerballer in line for an even richer deal, and the game's heavy spenders could be after him. One such team might be the Red Sox, who could use a quality lefty in their rotation besides Jon Lester. At press time, however, there was no word as to Maholm's taste for fried chicken and beer.

Vladimir Guerrero

CURRENT TEAM: ORIOLES BEST FIT: ATHLETICS After a bounceback season with the Rangers in 2010, in which he ranked fourth in the AL with 115 RBIs, Guerrero flopped with the Orioles, setting full-season career lows in home runs and OPS. Still, he might have one more rejuvenation left in him, and the A's -- who ranked third to last in the A.L. in home runs, and who will likely lose four lineup regulars (Coco Crisp, David DeJesus, Hideki Matsui and Josh Willingham) to free agency -- are just the type of club to take a low-risk chance on him. He might represent this year's Lance Berkman.

Francisco Cordero

CURRENT TEAM: REDS BEST FIT: REDS It's rarely pretty, but Cordero simply gets the job done year after year. In his four seasons with the Reds, he has averaged 38 saves, while blowing an average of six chances. While his age and cratering strikeout rate (it has declined in four straight years) will conspire to preclude another four-year deal, there seems little reason for the two sides to part ways.

Casey Kotchman

CURRENT TEAM: RAYS BEST FIT: RAYS The Rays plucked Kotchman from the scrap heap last January, giving him a one-year, $750,000 deal. By season's end, he had proven yet another brilliant signing by GM Andrew Friedman, as he was eighth in the AL in batting average while playing his typically excellent defense at first. Kotchman will never develop the power most desire from a first basemen, but that should keep his cost low, and therefore make him affordable to the Rays.

Raul Iba&#241;ez

CURRENT TEAM: PHILLIES BEST FIT: MARINERS The Phillies signed Ibanez to a 3-year, $31.5 million contract in December of 2008, and while his career in Philadelphia started off brilliantly -- he had 22 home runs and 60 RBI's by the '09 All-Star break -- his age seemed to catch up with him after that. He is now, simply, a terrible defensive outfielder -- the worst in baseball, according to fangraphs.com's Ultimate Zone Rating metric -- but he can still be a productive DH, and he could slide into the role that might be vacated by the similarly genial Johnny Damon with the Rays.

Rich Harden

CURRENT TEAM: ATHLETICS BEST FIT: PIRATES Harden's 2011 season was strange. He was sometimes brilliant -- such as in the seven shutout innings he threw against Toronto on Aug. 19, in which he struck out 11 Blue Jays -- and sometimes awful, as in the 4 1/3 inning, six earned run outing against the Yankees he made six days later. Still, his strikeout rate would have ranked as baseball's third best had he qualified, and that stuff, combined with his still young age, will make him an attractive low-risk, high-reward signing, perhaps for an up-and-coming, low-payroll club like the Pirates.

Brad Lidge

CURRENT TEAM: PHILLIES BEST FIT: METS Arm trouble kept Lidge from making his first appearance until late July, by which time he had permanently lost the Phillies' closer's job to Ryan Madson. If Lidge was a bit wild (he walked 13 batters in 19.1 innings over 25 appearances), he was ultimately effective, and his strikeout rate shows that he retains excellent stuff. The Phillies chose to buy out his $12.5 million option, and that should mean that he will move on from Philadelphia after four years there -- perhaps up the road to the Mets, whose bullpen ERA of 4.33 was baseball's third highest.

Juan Pierre

CURRENT TEAM: WHITE SOX BEST FIT: ASTROS After leading the majors with 68 steals in 2010, Pierre's basestealing ability seemed to evaporate: He mustered just 27 in 2011, and was caught a league-high 17 times. The Astros could give him a one-year deal in the hope that he he will rediscover his speed. He would at least give them one offensive player, aside from Carlos Lee, who anyone has ever heard of.

Jon Garland

CURRENT TEAM: DODGERS BEST FIT: PADRES Garland turned a solid 2010 season with the Padres, in which he went 14-12 with a 3.47 ERA, into a one-year, $5 million free agent deal with L.A. -- and was then lost for the season in June due to a shoulder injury. With his team option declined, Garland -- a 10 game winner in every season between 2002 and 2010, and a solid middle-of-the-rotation man -- is free to return to the Padres, and start the cycle again.

MLB's Top Remaining Free Agents