MLB Free Agents: 10 Impact Players You Didn't Know Were Potentially Available

With the playoffs set to begin next week, the regular season is wrapping up, and, for teams not heading into the postseason, the time is now to begin looking ahead to the crop of free agents that will be available this winter.

The trio of Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder and Jose Reyes has stolen the vast majority of the headlines as three of the game's top players could be changing teams, but there are other superstars making headlines as well.

As far as pitching goes, Rangers' ace C.J. Wilson headlines a somewhat weak class of starting pitchers that also includes intriguing Scott Boras client Edwin Jackson. Closers Heath Bell and Jonathan Papelbon will likely land multi-year deals at a heft price.

Throw in outfielder Carlos Beltran, who is coming off a mega deal and putting up a very good season at the best possible time, and the class is certainly not short on talent.

However, while those eight players have gotten the bulk of the media attention, they are far from the only players set to change teams that could make a significant impact in 2012.

So here is a look at 10 players set to hit the market who have not gotten the attention they deserve and whose impending free agency is a relative unknown to the casual baseball fan.

SP Paul Maholm, Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates made some noise in the NL Central this season before falling back to Earth in the second half, but there is no doubt that the franchise is heading in the right direction with a wealth of good young talent.

What they lack now is a true staff ace, and the closest thing they have to one right now is left-hander Paul Maholm who has posted a deceiving 6-14 record this season as he has a 3.66 ERA.

The Pirates hold a $9.75 million option on Maholm for next season, and, while he has been solid this season, he has also missed time with a shoulder injury and the team may choose to decline that option as the 30-year-old has a 4.36 career ERA, and posted a mark of 5.10 as recently as 2010.

CF Coco Crisp, Oakland Athletics

There are more than a few capable run producers on the market this coming winter, but table-setting lead-off hitters are few and far between.

The best of the group looks to be Oakland A's center fielder Coco Crisp, who currently leads the American League with 48 steals.

Crisp is hitting just .267 this year with a .317 on-base-percentage, but you can expect those numbers to get closer to his career averages of .276 and .330 next year, as the speedy outfielder will be 32 years old and should still have a handful of solid seasons in him.

SP Aaron Harang, San Diego Padres

After back-to-back 16-win seasons with the Reds in 2006 and 2007 in which Harang also struck out over 200 batters, he was among the top starting pitchers in the National League.

However, over the next three seasons he went a combined 18-38 with a 4.71 ERA, and, when he hit the free agent market last year at 32 years old, teams were not exactly lining up to sign him.

The Padres took a chance on him and signed him to a one-year, $3.5 million deal with an option for 2012 at $5 million. He has been very good with a 14-7 record and a 3.64 ERA, but there is still an off chance the Padres could decline his option as they are set to begin rebuilding.

1B Casey Kotchman, Tampa Bay Rays

Once ranked as the sixth best prospect in all of baseball, prior to the 2005 season, Kotchman was the first baseman of the future with the Angels for years, until they finally traded him to Atlanta in 2008 after four-and-a-half disappointing big league seasons.

From there, he played for three teams in two years, never seeing regular time and again posting pedestrian numbers. He then found himself without a job heading into the 2011 season and eventually latched on with the Rays on a minor league deal.

Seemingly something has clicked in Tampa, as the 28-year-old has hit .305 BA, 10 HR, 48 RBI and helped give a Rays offense that lost a lot in the offseason a much needed boost.

He will undoubtedly get a raise from the minimum salary he is making now, but once Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, and Carlos Pena are scooped up he will represent the best first base option on the market, and for a fraction of the cost.

RP Jonathan Broxton, Los Angeles Dodgers

For as thin as the starting pitching market is this season, the closer position is just the opposite, as it is headlined by Jonathan Papelbon and Heath Bell but also has solid depth including Matt Capps, Ryan Madson and Fernando Rodney.

Perhaps the most intriguing option on the market, though, is Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton, who has missed much of the 2011 season with an elbow injury and underwent arthroscopic surgery on September 19th.

He has pitched just 12.2 innings in his contract year, and that will no doubt hurt his contract status with whoever he signs with. That said, he is just two years removed from a season in which he saved 36 games and posted a 2.61 ERA and an impressive 13.5 K/9.

Still only 27 years old, Broxton could very easily return to form, and, at the same time, we could very easily have already seen the best that he has to offer. He is one of the biggest risk-reward players of the 2012 class.

C Ramon Hernandez, Cincinnati Reds

Impact catchers rarely hit the free agent market for the simple fact that there are not very many of them in the league, and teams will generally pay an arm and a leg for anyone capable of putting up numbers behind the dish, evidenced by the three-year, $18 million deal that career .241 hitter John Buck got from the Marlins last year.

The prize of this year's catching class will be Ramon Hernandez, who has enjoyed a stellar season with a line of .283 BA, 12 HR, 36 RBI in just 297 at bats.

Hernandez found himself at the center of trade talks, as the team has a pair of impressive prospects in Yasmani Grandal and Devin Mesoraco as well as backup Ryan Hanigan, but he stuck around, and now profiles as a Type A free agent.

Hernandez is 35 years old, so it remains to be seen how much longer he can keep this up, but he has been as steady a producer at the catcher position as anyone and will likely be rewarded for it.

SP Hisashi Iwakuma, Japanese Free Agent

Lost in the talk of Yu Darvish possibly coming to the United States is last year's big-name Japanese pitcher, Hisashi Iwakuma.

Last season, the A's won the rights to negotiate with him with a $19.1 million posting fee, but talks broke down and he returned to Japan. He will be considered an international free agent after this season, so a posting fee will not be required to negotiate with him this time around.

The 30-year-old is not in the same class as Darvish, but he is a solid starter and should be a middle-of-the-rotation guy with upside for more. With the posting fee out of the way, there should be plenty of teams vying for his services in a weak pitching pool.

DH David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox

Given the fact that he is one of the most recognizable players on one of the most talked about teams in all of baseball, you would think more would have been made about the impending free agency of Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, but that has not been the case.

After a dismal 2009 season that had many questioning if his career was coming to a close, Ortiz enjoyed a nice bounce back season last year and has been even better this year with a .308 BA, 29 HR, 96 RBI line.

He will be 36 next season, and he will likely be looking for a salary similar to the $12.5 million that he made this season. There is no questioning what he means to the Red Sox, but with the team looking to add some top tier pitching this offseason, they may balk at spending that much for an aging designated hitter.

SP Mark Buehrle, Chicago White Sox

The White Sox were among the biggest disappointments of the 2011 season, as many had them picked to win the AL Central handily with their impressive pitching depth and the addition of Adam Dunn.

Instead, they will finish the season double-digit games out of first place and below .500. That has led to the release/trade of manager Ozzie Guillen, and there could be more moves to come as the team looks to remain in win-now mode.

One player who could be moving on is starter Mark Buehrle, who has won 160 games in his 12 seasons with the White Sox, and is in the midst of one of his better seasons at the age of 32.

Given the thin market for starting pitching, Buehrle could potentially cash in, and, while it is likely that the White Sox will do what they can to bring him back, they may not want to overpay for a starter on the backside of his career.

SS Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia Phillies

There is no question that Jose Reyes is the cream of the crop as far as free agent shortstops go, but there has been little to no talk of the impending free agency of former NL MVP and Phillies mainstay Jimmy Rollins.

While both sides have expressed interest in Rollins coming back to the Phillies, the fact remains that they have made it this long without addressing his contract and there is at least a possibility that the 32-year-old could be playing somewhere else next year.

He is no longer the offensive threat that he was during his MVP campaign in 2007, but the fact remains that he plays fantastic defense and is still one of the more productive shortstops in the league.

It would be a huge surprise if Rollins were not back in Philly next season, but for now at least, there remains an outside shot that he could be moving on after 12 seasons with the team.