There are a lot to choose from
With Alex Bregman and Nick Pivetta finding new homes yesterday, the book on meaningful free agency for the 2024-2025 MLB offseason is pretty much closed. There are only five guys left with WAR point estimate projections above 1 WAR, and only 20 at 0.5 WAR or above. It took until players started reporting to Spring Training, but here we are.
The remaining free agents that could make an impact seem like they fall into the Adam Duvall category of yesteryear: wanting larger deals than teams are willing to pay for below-average (and often risky, or boring and not particularly needed if not risky) production. Most of them will probably sign cheap deals once Opening Day looms and they decide they want to play somewhere rather than holding out for a deal that’s not coming.
So, now that the dust is in the process of settling, I’ll put this to you: which free agent deal signed this offseason was the wildest? Define “wildest” however you’d like. Juan Soto’s deal was very big, but we knew it was going to be big. Luis Severino getting a bunch of money from Not-Oakland? I’d say that qualifies. $40 million in annual average value for Alex Bregman to transform cheap homers into wall ball with the Green Monster? I’m sure y’all can think of something.