Even though pitchers and catchers for all 30 Major League Baseball teams report to spring training this week, dozens of free agents who played significant big league roles in 2024 remain available. The line between free agency ending and the season beginning grows blurrier by the year, and at least a dozen players are expected to get big league deals in the coming weeks.
The full picture of this winter is not clear, but it is on pace to be the second-highest-spending offseason in baseball history, with nearly $3.2 billion guaranteed already.
More than $1 billion comes from the New York Mets -- and of that, more than three-quarters belongs to Juan Soto, whose 15-year, $765 million contract set a high-dollar mark across all of professional sports.