Welcome to the MLB offseason! It's time to rank the top players in the 2024-25 free agent class and project how much money they'll get this winter.
Let's start with a quick rundown of what you need to know about these rankings and projections because you'll likely scroll immediately to the players and return here when you have a question.
For simplicity, the players are ranked in the order of their projected guaranteed contracts -- with the exception of Japanese ace Roki Sasaki (whose contract will be limited to international bonus pools if he, as expected, comes over this winter). The contract projections throughout are a mix of my opinions and those of agents and executives, but the goal is to predict what will happen -- not what I think the players are worth.
Starting with (spoiler alert) Juan Soto at No. 1, many of the top free agents in this class are represented by agent Scott Boras. I have Boras projected to do $1.717 billion in contracts this winter. That is 47.3% of the total of $3.627 billion worth of guarantees I've projected to be handed out this winter.
(For reference, I projected $3.182 billion of guarantees last winter, and my math says $3.051 billion was handed out. I also took Michael Wacha's recent deal out of this winter's projections, but I'm off to a good start, projecting three years, $52.5 million when he signed for $51 million over the same term.)
Buzz around the industry is cautiously optimistic that spending will be up, meaning relative to expectations, helping fuel my projections as I strive to be close to as accurate as I was last winter. On to the projections!