NEW YORK — Baseball’s offseason market formally opened Thursday when the Major League Baseball Players Association declared 144 players free agents at the close of the 2026 season.
The list is only a starting point. More names will join it once teams settle club and player options written into individual contracts, so the pool should grow over the coming days.
For now, each player can talk money only with his most recent club. That exclusive window shuts at 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday, Nov. 2, when every team can negotiate and sign anyone on the list.
The Atlanta Braves lead all clubs with 11 departing players, a group that includes closer Raisel Iglesias, infielder Ha-Seong Kim and pitcher Tyler Mahle. The New York Yankees have 10, among them Jazz Chisholm Jr., Paul Goldschmidt and David Bednar. Arizona, the Chicago Cubs, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego each have nine.
Pitching headlines the class. The Dodgers list ace Tarik Skubal, while the Cubs list Shota Imanaga and Kevin Gausman and Milwaukee lists Brandon Woodruff. Detroit has six, including Justin Verlander, Jack Flaherty and Gleyber Torres. Toronto’s eight include Max Scherzer and George Springer, and Seattle’s four include Randy Arozarena.
Teams also regained the ability to make trades involving players on 40-man rosters, the first such deals allowed since the summer trade deadline.
Teams can also tender a qualifying offer, a one-year deal set at $23.15 million for 2027. A player who turns it down stays on the market, and his old team collects a draft pick if he signs somewhere else. Acceptances are rare: only 18 of the 157 players who have received one since the system began in 2012 said yes.
Not every free agent is eligible. Players who already received a qualifying offer, including Torres, Scherzer, Springer, Imanaga and Gausman, cannot get another one.
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