MLB free-agent rankings: In the 2027 class, it's Tarik Skubal at No. 1 and everybody else
MLB free-agent rankings: In the 2027 class, it's Tarik Skubal at No. 1 and everybody else
Jake MintzFri, May 1, 2026 at 7:02 PM UTC
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The calendar has turned to May, and still, we hardly know a darn thing about the 2026 MLB season. Everybody in the NL Central is good. The Phillies and Mets are collecting losses like stamps. The Athletics are leading the AL West, and they don’t even have a first name! What a world!
But as the weather warms, it’s never too early to think about cold weather baseball activities — namely, the 2027 free-agent class.
This will be the first in a series of monthly check-ins. Much will change between now and the offseason. Injuries, underperformance and unexpected breakouts are yet to come. At this point, we don’t know what we don’t know. As such, this list will change a great deal over the coming months.
Before we begin, a few big-picture notes about this class:
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1. This could be an all-time bad crop of position-player free agents.
In every single offseason since 2015, at least one hitter received a contract with a total value of $100 million or more. That run might very well be snapped this winter. A strong walk year from Jazz Chisholm Jr. or Seiya Suzuki could lead to a nine-figure deal, but it’s far from a given. Why the shallow group? Extensions for Cal Raleigh and Nico Hoerner kept those shoo-in $100 million talents off the open market. And the 2020 rookie class was particularly light, for whatever reason.
2. There’s tons of pitching.
Whatever you’re shopping for on the mound, this market has it: Game 1 playoff starters, mid-rotation innings-eaters, lefties, righties, velocity, control, reliability, upside. It’s all here.
3. The labor situation will impact things.
It’s a near certainty that a work stoppage of some sort — probably the owners locking out the players — will happen when the current CBA expires on Dec. 1. When that transpired in the winter of 2021-22, there was a flurry of free-agent activity right before the CBA deadline. Things might happen that way again, they might not, but know that zero transactional activity is allowed during a work stoppage. Get ready to get bored.
With all that out of the way, let’s get to the rankings.
Notes: Whenever you see a number, a slash and another number, that’s a reference to contract years and total earnings. For instance, the shorthand for Bryce Harper’s 11-year, $330 million deal would be “11/330.” Ages listed below are for the 2027 season.
1. Tarik Skubal, Tigers SP, age 30
Source: “AOL Sports”
