Upcoming MLB Free Agents Poised to Earn Big Bucks in 2015

Players heading into their walk years might as well be contestants on the short-lived 1980s game show "Press Your Luck," hoping to avoid the whammies before they can cash in on the big bucks awaiting them as free agents after the season.

We've seen players deal with both scenarios in the past, and the 2015 regular season has already delivered more of the same. Now, "big bucks" is a subjective term, so to avoid any confusion, we'll set the threshold as a free-agent contract worth at least $80 million.

Some, like Chicago's Jeff Samardzija, have already run into those entertaining-but-evil cartoon characters on more than one occasion, while others, like San Diego's Justin Upton, have been able to avoid them so far.

What other free-agents-to-be have enjoyed the same kind of early-season success that Upton has, leaving them all poised to collect those big bucks this coming winter? And how big might those bucks actually get?

Let's take a look. 

The Next Tier

Ben Margot/Associated Press

Only a small fraction of free agents are going to land the true megadeals, but there's plenty of money to go around and no shortage of players looking to cash in on their 2015 success.

Based on their early-season performances, the following players are going to be well-paid after the season, landing deals that most didn't believe they'd be capable of heading into the season. However, they'll all fall short of cracking our $80 million cutoff.

• OF Yoenis Cespedes (Detroit Tigers)
• OF Alex Gordon (Kansas City Royals)*
• SP Doug Fister (Washington Nationals)
• SP J.A. Happ (Seattle Mariners)
• SP Scott Kazmir (Oakland Athletics)
• 2B Howie Kendrick (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Additionally, a few players who are off to rough starts in 2015 could command more than $80 million on the open market if they rebound and finish the year with the sort of numbers we've come to expect from them.

• SS Ian Desmond (Washington Nationals)
• SP Jeff Samardzija (Chicago White Sox)

(Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters would have made the cut, but he's yet to return from 2014 Tommy John surgery.)

*Gordon has a $12.5 million player option that he's likely to decline

SP Johnny Cueto, Cincinnati Reds

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

On pace to lead baseball in innings pitched for the second consecutive season and games started for the third time in four years, Johnny Cueto has proven himself to be a dependable, durable, reliable front-of-the-rotation arm, one who could potentially land the biggest payday of any upcoming free agent.

Not only has Cueto consistently delivered quality outings for Cincinnati, pitching deep into games, but he's become one of baseball's premier strikeout artists, ranking fourth in strikeouts (298) and seventh in K/9 (8.88) among the 25 pitchers who have made at least 40 starts since the beginning of 2014.

For those looking for a longer track record of success, consider this: Since the start of the 2011 season, only one pitcher with at least 100 starts—Clayton Kershaw—has pitched to a higher ERA+ (164) than Cueto's 153 mark, 20 points ahead of third-place Cliff Lee (133).

Last month, CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reported that Cueto was seeking Max Scherzer money—around $200 million—on his next contract. The quantity and quality of the other free-agent starters available might work against Cueto, but he's sure to land at least a Jon Lester-type deal (six years, $155 million).

SP Zack Greinke, Los Angeles Dodgers

Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images

Last July, ESPN's David Schoenfield wrote the following about the prospects of Zach Greinke opting out of his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2015 season:

"

Greinke's deal with the Dodgers would total six years and $147 million if he plays it out. But considering Lester and Scherzer will both easily top $100 million and maybe approach $150 million as free agents, you can see Greinke's thought process. Lester is 30 and Scherzer turns 30 next month. Greinke would turn 32 after the 2015 season, so he's a couple years older than those guys. Still, there's a big difference in how teams would value a 32-year-old pitcher versus a 35-year-old.

"

As we know, both Lester and Scherzer eclipsed the $150 million mark, with Scherzer cracking the $200 million plateau. While both could be unreachable numbers for Greinke, who will be entering his age-32 season in 2016, he's showing that he's still a legitimate front-line starter in 2015.

The 2009 AL CY Young Award winner currently leads all qualified starters in ERA (1.52) and WHIP (0.86) while ranking among the league leaders in innings pitched (53.1). The opposition is hitting .184 against him, a mark bested by only Francisco Liriano (.168), Shelby Miller (.171) and Dallas Keuchel (.182).

While Greinke told MLB.com's Ken Gurnick that he's enjoyed his time in Los Angeles, he wasn't ready to rule out exercising his opt-out clause, which would see him lose the three years and $71 million left on his contract.

"[The opt-out clause is] all to your benefit," Greinke said. "If things are going good, you can use it for more power. There's no negative to it." Considering how well things are currently going for Greinke, it wouldn't be surprising at all to see a team give him a four-year, $100 million deal to leave the Dodgers.

Then again, given the current state of Los Angeles' rotation, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Dodgers try to bring him back on a more lucrative deal themselves.

SP David Price, Detroit Tigers

Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

Even before he reached an agreement with Detroit on a one-year, $19.75 million deal in January—a record sum for a player who had filed for arbitration—it was widely assumed that David Price, should he reach free agency after the 2015 season, would land the biggest contract of them all.

While that's still entirely possible, Price hasn't been quite as dominant or sharp as most expected he would be in his walk year. His 3.40 ERA and 1.25 WHIP are far from what you'd consider to be terrible numbers, but they're a bit higher than the 3.08 ERA and 1.12 WHIP that he posted from 2010 to 2014.

Additionally, Price isn't missing as many bats as he has in the past, with a 7.1 K/9 that pales in comparison to the 8.6 mark that he's carried over the last five years. That said, it's hard to imagine that Price is letting the pressure of his impending free agency get to him.

"I've gone year-to-year for the last four years now, so every year is a contract year," Price told MLive.com's James Schmehl during spring training. "It doesn't matter. It's not what I'm focused on. It's not what I'm worried about."

That attitude falls in line with the advice that his former teammate Max Scherzer, who landed the most lucrative free-agent deal ever handed out to a right-handed pitcher last winter, had for his left-handed counterpart:

"The biggest advice I can give is when you come to the park, it has to all be about winning," Scherzer told Schmehl. "No room for anything else or any other motivation. Your only motivation is to go out there and try to win every single time. That really worked for me."

Some teams will look at the drop in Price's strikeout rate and slight increases to his peripherals as reason why he isn't worthy of a Scherzer-type deal (seven years, $210 million), but some club figures to be ready, willing and able to come darn close to bring Price aboard.

OF Justin Upton, San Diego Padres

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

It might seem like Justin Upton has been around forever, but he'll be hitting the free agent market as a 28-year-old slugger in the thick of his prime, one who very well may be coming off the most productive season of his nine-year career.

Upton is among the National League leaders in RBI (25), runs scored (26), home runs (eight) and stolen bases (eight), the last two putting him on pace to become the 39th member of the 30-30 club, something that baseball hasn't seen since 2012 when Ryan Braun and Mike Trout accomplished the feat.

Sure, he's a liability on defense, strikes out a bunch and has never lived up to the lofty expectations placed upon him as the first overall pick in the 2005 MLB Draft, but Upton is far and away the best position player available via free agency, one who is sure to command top dollar for his services.

At the very least, Upton should be able to pull something similar to the six-year, $85.5 million extension that Adam Jones signed with Baltimore in 2012, though it'd be surprising if his next contract didn't crack the $100 million mark.

*Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference, FanGraphs and MLB.com and are current through games of May 16. All contract information courtesy of Cot's Contracts.

Hit me up on Twitter to talk all things baseball: @RickWeinerBR