2018 Will End With a Whole Lot of Free Agents Still Unsigned

Last year, in the final few days before the calendar flipped to 2018, we were struck by the sheer volume of useful free agents still on the market. It was upwards of 150 guys who were at least on the borderline of being worthy of a big league deal, or at least were clear Spring Training invites.

Of course, as the market freeze out extended well into Spring Training, loads of those players wound up having to settle for minor league deals if they got them at all. Because of that, and because the one-off explanations/excuses for the slow market never struck us as nearly as powerful an explanation as the tightness that came with the new CBA, I can’t say I’m shocked to see that we’re in nearly the same place a year later.

Just to put some names on it, with 2018 about to flip to 2019, the following useful free agents (no doubt among others) remain unsigned. To be sure, a lot of these guys will sign minor league deals, at best. But before last year, even a lot of those types were long signed to minor league deals before the end of December.

In some ways, it’s heartening to see that this is a top-heavy list. On the other hand, this is still a whole lot of baseball players that merit finding a place to play, at least in Spring Training, and now they’ve got to begin a new year without a job:

1. Bryce Harper, OF
2. Manny Machado, SS/3B
3. Craig Kimbrel, RHP
4. Adam Ottavino, RHP
5. Zach Britton, LHP
6. Dallas Keuchel, LHP
7. A.J. Pollock, OF
8. Yasmani Grandal, C
9. Marwin Gonzalez, UTL
10. Jed Lowrie, INF
11. D.J. LeMahieu, 2B
12. Brian Dozier, 2B
13. Mike Moustakas, 3B
14. Nick Markakis, OF
15. Yusei Kikuchi, LHP
16. Wade Miley, LHP
17. Gio Gonzalez, LHP
18. David Robertson, RHP
19. Kelvin Herrera, RHP
20. Cody Allen, RHP
21. Justin Wilson, LHP
22. Martin Maldonado, C
23. Ervin Santana, RHP
24. Adam Jones, OF
25. Asdrubal Cabrera, UTL
26. Josh Harrison, UTL
27. Brad Brach, RHP
28. Clay Buchholz, RHP
29. Jeremy Hellickson, RHP
30. Derek Holland, LHP
31. Drew Pomeranz, LHP
32. Evan Gattis, C/DH
33. Carlos Gonzalez, OF
34. Jose Iglesias, SS
35. Freddy Galvis, SS
36. Denard Span, OF
37. Jorge De La Rosa, LHP
38. Oliver Perez, LHP
39. Shawn Kelley, RHP
40. Curtis Granderson, OF
41. Matt Wieters, C
42. Sergio Romo, RHP
43. Gerardo Parra, OF
44. Brett Anderson, LHP
45. Neil Walker, UTL
46. Tyler Clippard, RHP
47. Ryan Madson, RHP
48. Devin Mesoraco, C
49. David Phelps, RHP
50. Logan Morrison, 1B/DH
51. Carlos Gomez, OF
52. Jon Jay, OF
53. Bud Norris, RHP
54. Greg Holland, RHP
55. Jerry Blevins, LHP
56. Martin Perez, LHP
57. Adam Warren, RHP
58. Tony Sipp, LHP
59. Francisco Liriano, LHP
60. Jake Diekman, LHP
61. Adeiny Hechavarria, SS
62. Mark Reynolds, 1B/DH
63. Edwin Jackson, RHP
64. James Shields, RHP
65. Matt Holliday, OF
66. Jose Bautista, OF
67. Marco Estrada, RHP
68. Hanley Ramirez, DH
69. Brad Miller, UTL
70. Chris Young, OF
71. Lucas Duda, 1B/DH
72. Aaron Loup, LHP
73. Daniel Hudson, RHP
74. Tony Barnette, RHP
75. Zach Duke, LHP
76. Cameron Maybin, OF
77. Matt Joyce, OF
78. Logan Forsythe, 2B
79. Doug Fister, RHP
80. Adam Liberatore, LHP
81. Randall Delgado, RHP
82. Sean Rodriguez, UTL
83. Jenrry Mejia, RHP
84. Nathan Karns, RHP
85. Jim Johnson, RHP
86. Bert Traylor, SS
87. Danny Valencia, UTL
88. Melky Cabrera, OF
89. Nick Hundley, C
90. Austin Jackson, OF
91. Hector Santiago, LHP
92. Brandon Maurer, RHP
93. John Axford, RHP
94. Santiago Casilla, RHP
95. Craig Gentry, OF
96. Hunter Pence, OF
97. Marc Rzepczynski, LHP
98. Alcides Escobar, SS
99. Chase Headley, 3B
100. Abraham Almonte, OF
101. Phil Hughes, RHP
102. Jaime Garcia, LHP
103. Tom Koehler, RHP
104. A.J. Ramos, RHP
105. George Kontos, RHP
106. Chris Hatcher, RHP
107. Fernando Salas, RHP
108. Zach McAllister, RHP
109. Boone Logan, LHP
110. Josh Tomlin, RHP
111. Rene Rivera, C
112. Bobby Wilson, C
113. Drew Butera, C
114. Tim Collins, LHP
115. Chris Tillman, RHP
116. Junichi Tazawa, RHP
117. Tommy Milone, LHP
118. Peter Moylan, RHP
119. Adam Rosales, UTL
120. Ryan Schimpf, UTL
121. Jose Reyes, INF
122. Bartolo Colon, RHP
123. Jason Hammel, RHP
124. Jeanmar Gomez, RHP
125. Jose Lobaton, C
126. Justin Grimm, RHP
127. Jandel Gustave, RHP
128. Brandon Guyer, OF
129. Chris Volstad, RHP
130. Andrew Romine, UTL
131. Brandon Phillips, 2B
132. Yovani Gallardo, RHP
133. Ryan Flaherty, UTL
134. A.J. Ellis, C
135. Matt Belisle, RHP
136. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
137. Chris Stewart, C
138. Tony Cruz, C
139. Gordon Beckham, UTL