Ranking the top 20 MLB free agents of the 2024-25 offseason: Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman and more

With barely a month left of the regular season, it's time to start thinking about free agency

By R.J. Anderson Sep 5, 2024 at 10:01 am ET• 9 min read

Major League Baseball's regular season is entering its final month. In a matter of weeks, most of the league's front offices will shift their attention toward the future by beginning to plot out their offseason strategies. We're not ready to do that just yet -- there are still playoff races to be decided, pennants to be earned, etc. -- but we understand that for a lot of the reading audience, it's time to look forward.

With that in mind, we here at CBS Sports decided to bring in the stretch run by offering an early preview of our annual free-agent rankings. For those new to this endeavor, every winter we rank the top 50 players in the class based on a combination of expected average annual value and their expected impact heading forward. Below, we've engaged in a modified version of the exercise, going only 20 players deep instead of 50.

We insist that you take these rankings for what they are -- a snapshot in time -- because we can guarantee you that our offseason rankings will have a different look to them. That's for a few reasons, including improved clarity on the statuses of Roki Sasaki and other players with contractual options. By the time those rankings are published, we'll also have a better feel for how front offices are sizing up the class. (Plus, you know, whatever revelations pop up over the next month-plus of games.)

With all that mumbo jumbo out of the way, let's get to the good stuff.

1. Juan Soto, OF, Yankees

Did you expect someone else? Soto will enter the market as a 26-year-old riding a Hall of Fame trajectory. Players who fit that description seldom become free agents; when they do, they get top billing. Soto will be coming off another impressive effort, as he's likely to finish the season with 40-plus home runs and more walks than strikeouts. He's as reliable an offensive force as there is in the majors, having never posted an OPS+ below 140 -- that despite debuting as a teenager. In an ideal world, he'd be better than a scratch defender. Let's be serious though: if Soto's glove has a team shying away from him, they were never going to be a serious bidder anyway. He's going to get paid, and paid something fierce this winter. He deserves it.