Ranking MLB's Newest 2025-26 Free Agents Non-Tendered
The MLB free-agent market for the 2025-26 offseason wasn't truly fully stocked until Friday night, and now it is after the tender deadline came and went.
Though not every player who was non-tendered is landing on the open market with much impact, there are eight newcomers who are worth a look for teams in need of affordable help.
We wouldn't be talking about these guys if they were fully healthy and/or coming off strong 2025 seasons, but what matters now is the future. And if you look hard enough, there are things to like about their outlooks going forward.
For simplicity's sake, let's count 'em down based on how much they can help a team in 2026.
Note: Arbitration salary projections are from MLB Trade Rumors, and are no longer valid for next season.
8. RHP Alek Manoah
1 of 8
Age: 27
2025 Team: Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves
2025 Stats (MiLB): 10 GS, 38.2 IP, 36 H (6 HR), 35 K, 23 BB, 3.96 ERA
Projected Arbitration Salary: $2.2 million
Alek Manoah was once a fast-rising star in Toronto, as he followed a strong breakthrough in 2021 with a 2022 season that saw him make the All-Star team and finish third in the AL Cy Young Award voting.
The years since have not been kind to Manoah. A lost season in 2023 was followed by Tommy John surgery in 2024, and he had barely been back this year before the Blue Jays put him on waivers and Atlanta scooped him up.
We wish there was a positive way to spin Manoah's return in 2025, but his fastball was only sitting at about 91 mph in the minors. That's about 3 mph below where he sat in his breakout 2022 season, when he had a 2.24 ERA over 196.2 innings.
Even so, Manoah is nothing if not an intriguing reclamation project. Even if he's cooked as a starter, he might at least be turned into a reliever who could potentially gain a few ticks on his fastball from only pitching one inning at a time.
Potential Landing Spots: Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Athletics
7. RHP Evan Phillips
2 of 8
Age: 31
2025 Team: Los Angeles Dodgers
2025 Stats: 7 G, 5.2 IP, 4 H (0 HR), 6 K, 2 BB, 0.00 ERA
Projected Arbitration Salary: $6.1 million
The Dodgers are pretty much printing money these days, but ducking a $6.1 million payday for Evan Phillips was still a seemingly inevitable business decision.
Phillips had Tommy John surgery in June, meaning he probably won't be able to get back on the mound until sometime after the All-Star break in 2026. His stock had already been somewhat in decline, as he spent 2024 as a league-average pitcher and was then limited to low-leverage work in the playoffs.
Before that, however, he ripped off a 1.59 ERA and 0.796 WHIP across the 2022 and 2023 seasons. He had an overall strikeout rate of 29.6 percent, with a walk rate of just 6.6 percent. He was one of the guys who helped popularize the sweeper, and his was still a dandy even in 2024.
A one-year deal with an option for 2027 sounds right for Phillips, and the potential prize involves him being a difference-maker out of the bullpen in a playoff push.
Potential Landing Spots: Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies
6. C Jonah Heim, Texas Rangers
3 of 8
Age: 30
2025 Team: Texas Rangers
2025 Stats: 124 G, 433 PA, 11 HR, 3 SB, .213 AVG, .271 OBP, .332 SLG
Projected Arbitration Salary: $6 million
There's a reason that Jonah Heim is a free agent right now. Well, really two reasons: he stopped hitting and he stopped fielding.
Heim was a 3.1-rWAR catcher back in 2023, when he was an All-Star and Gold Glover who hit 18 home runs in the regular season, plus three more in the playoffs. Since then, he's posted exactly a .602 OPS in each of the last two seasons, with defensive metrics that have declined across the board.
It's hard to make excuses for any of this, much less to find silver linings to redeem Heim. And at 30 years old, he's no longer on the young side.
He's here, though, because he's still a playable everyday catcher who can give a team 100-plus games out of the crouch. And he might simply need to escape Globe Life Field to get his bat going again, as he had a .649 OPS and eight of his homers away from home this year.
Potential Landing Spots: Tampa Bay Rays, Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies
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5. 1B Nathaniel Lowe
4 of 8
Age: 30
2025 Teams: Washington Nationals and Boston Red Sox
2025 Stats: 153 G, 609 PA, 18 HR, 1 SB, .228 AVG, .307 OBP, .381 SLG
Projected Arbitration Salary: $13.5 million
The Red Sox were simply never going to tender Nathaniel Lowe at that rate, so it was no great surprise when they DFA'd him a couple days ahead of time.
Yet even if Lowe was never worth $13.5 million, this is still a guy who averaged 20 home runs and 2.8 rWAR between 2021 and 2024. He won both a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove, plus a World Series ring in 2023.
There isn't much to like when browsing Lowe's Statcast profile, yet he did finish the season stronger than he started it. Compared to his Washington tenure, Lowe's time with Boston was marked by a higher walk rate, a lower strikeout rate and much lower rate of ground balls. The end result was a 121 OPS-plus.
There's a big caveat that Lowe is only usable in a platoon role against right-handed pitching, but the helium he got in the latter stages of 2025 makes him worth a shot as a low-risk free agent.
Potential Landing Spots: San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox
4. RF Mike Tauchman
5 of 8
Age: 34
2025 Team: Chicago White Sox
2025 Stats: 93 G, 385 PA, 9 HR, 0 SB, .263 AVG, .356 OBP, .400 SLG
Projected Arbitration Salary: $3.4 million
It's been six years since Mike Tauchman came out of nowhere to post a 128 OPS-plus for a New York Yankees offense that clubbed 306 home runs, which will likely always represent the peak of his career.
And yet, he's been just fine to the tune of a 108 OPS-plus across the last three seasons, even if the caveat is that he's a platoon hitter who does the bulk of his damage against right-handed pitching.
Tauchman is the kind of guy who always gives a good at-bat, as his walk rate has never gone below 10.8 percent in any of his eight seasons. And while he mostly plays right field, he can play left or center in a pinch.
To be sure, this isn't a guy you want anchoring a lineup. But if he's coming off the bench behind a strong starting nine, that's how you know you have solid depth.
Potential Landing Spots: Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds
3. DH/OF Christopher Morel
6 of 8
Age: 26
2025 Team: Tampa Bay Rays
2025 Stats: 105 G, 305 PA, 11 HR, 7 SB, .219 AVG, .289 OBP, .396 SLG
Projected Arbitration Salary: $2.6 million
Christopher Morel was a shiny trade chip back in his Chicago Cubs days, and they finally cashed him in when they traded for Isaac Paredes in 2024.
The Rays probably didn't think they would ever have to designate Morel for assignment, yet here we are. And nobody can blame them, as his 154 games in a Rays uniform yielded a .632 OPS and 165 strikeouts in only 451 at-bats.
Making contact is the major barrier between Morel and sustained success. He's struck out in 30-plus percent of his plate appearances in three of his four seasons, and his whiff rate this year was pushing 40 percent.
And yet, he popped 26 homers in just 388 at-bats as a 24-year-old in 2023, and his hard-hit rate this year was a 0.3 percentage points south of 50 percent. Power bats like that are not to be discarded lightly, much less at such a young age.
Potential Landing Spots: Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins, San Diego Padres
2. CF JJ Bleday
7 of 8
Age: 28
2025 Team: Athletics
2025 Stats: 98 G, 344 PA, 14 HR, 1 SB, .212 AVG, .294 OBP, .404 SLG
Projected Arbitration Salary: $2.2 million
JJ Bleday was a top-100 prospect for MLB Pipeline as recently as 2022, yet he always had the profile of a high-ceiling, low-floor kind of talent.
The low floor is mostly what the league has seen since Bleday debuted in 2022. He's posted negative WAR in three of four seasons, and he crashed out so hard in 2025 that the A's didn't wait until Friday to show him the door. He was designated for assignment on Tuesday.
Bleday is still relatively young, however, and it was only last year that he tallied 67 extra bases hits. Even though he couldn't keep that pace going in 2025, he actually got better at hitting the air to his pull side with an AirPull% above the league average. That could play well at a park that caters to left-handed hitters.
Bleday also has a sharp approach at the plate that will play anywhere, and he can handle himself in all three outfield spots. He's a good pick-up as a platoon option or fourth outfielder for teams in need of affordable impact.
Potential Landing Spots: Los Angeles Angels, Cleveland Guardians, Houston Astros
1. RF Adolis García
8 of 8
Age: 32
2025 Team: Texas Rangers
2025 Stats: 135 G, 547 PA, 19 HR, 13 SB, .227 AVG, .271 OBP, .394 SLG
Projected Arbitration Salary: $12.1 million
It was only two years ago that Adolis García was an All-Star, a Gold Glover and a playoff hero, so it's wild that his career has come to this point so soon.
Wild... but not surprising in the least. Though he remains a very good defender—he was a Gold Glove finalist this year—García sunk into below-average territory with his bat across the last two seasons, to the tune of a 96 OPS-plus.
There's an obvious warning sign in how the slugger's bat speed has fallen by 1.6 mph since 2023, but he can still put a hurting on the ball. His average exit velocity this year was 92.1 mph, easily above the league average of 88.6 mph.
García was at his best when he was working walks in addition to slamming home runs (39 of them, to be exact) back in 2023. If he's going to get good again, that's the key following a year in which his chase and walk rates both took wrong turns.
Potential Landing Spots: Miami Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants
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