Sports Magazine

Free Agent Starting Pitchers

By Kipper @pghsportsforum
I got a little bored today so I went through MLB Trade Rumors of free agent starting pitchers and broke them into tiers. Thought I'd post them here and see if I can get a few comments. MLB Trade Rumors had 45 pitchers listed and I broke them down into 9 groups though 2 of those groups are for special cases.
Option Likely To Be Exercised: Hisashi Iwakuma, Johnny Cueto, Wei-Yin Chen, A.J. Burnett, Yovani Gallardo, J.A. Happ
This is probably the simplest group to understand. I don't see anyway these guys reach free agency. A couple others have options that may have a good chance at being exercised but I don't see those as necessarily slam dunks like I do these.
Limited Free Agent: Hiroki Kuroda
Kuroda is a special case. He isn't going to be a real free agent as he will likely once again limit his choices to retirement, Japan, the Yankees or perhaps the west coast.
The Big 3: Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, James Shields
These three players will command big time contracts likely worth over 20 million per season.
The Next Group: Brandon McCarthy, Ervin Santana, Jake Peavy, Francisco Liriano
These four players are still solid top of the rotation arms but they aren't dominant like the above group. With the exception of Peavy, who may only get 2 years, I'm guessing these guys will get 3 or 4 years and somewhere between 12 and 16 million per season.
Middle of the Rotation: Aaron Harang, Jason Hammel, Justin Masterson, Dan Haren, Ryan Vogelsong, Edinson Volquez
These pitchers will be signed to depthen a team's rotation and give it a strong middle. Masterson will probably take a 1 year deal to try and increase his value and Haren may exercise his option but the rest I'm guessing will receive 2-3 year deals worth 8-10 million per season.
Back of the Rotation: Colby Lewis, Chris Capuano, Carlos Villanueva, Kyle Kendrick, Kevin Correia, Chris Young, Jerome Williams
Of the remaining pitchers these are the ones I believe are the most likely to receive a one year deal worth a few million dollars. These guys will serve as back of the rotation pitchers.
Fodder/Minor League Deals/Innings Eaters: Bruce Chen, Kevin Slowey, Scott Baker, Randy Wolf, Franklin Morales, Joe Saunders, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Paul Maholm, Wandy Rodriguez, Felipe Paulino, Roberto Hernandez
My guess is most of these guys will wind up with minor league contracts. Not much separates some of these guys from the back of the rotation group though so some spots may be swapped out.
Likely Retirees: Josh Beckett, Ryan Dempster
Beckett has already announced his plans to retire and to me it seems unlikely Dempster will return
Injuries/Projects: Brett Anderson, Brandon Morrow, Gavin Floyd, Josh Johnson, Chad Billingsley
Here is the group that we really have no clue what to expect out of. All 5 of these players battled injuries this year if not previous seasons as well. This is where the Pirates may choose to take a gamble.

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