In other sports, free agency is a sprint. Our Bleacher Report NBA colleagues were writing about the few remaining “hidden gems” by July 4—just three days after the market opened and before anyone could even officially sign.
Baseball free agency is more like the MLB season. It goes on and on, and when it begins, no one really has any good idea who will come out on top. One big difference: A mystery team never wins the World Series but often wins out in the winter.
This year’s market opened for business as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday, so it’s far too early to predict with any certainty where anyone is headed. What we can say for sure is there’s a lot of talent available and plenty of players (158 as of Friday, or more than five per team).
It’s not too early for some suggestions where the top players could go, based on reports and also conversations with people around the game. We don’t have time or interest to list everyone, but we’ll go with the top 10 names on the market.
Let’s get started. Spring training is right around the corner.