As is often the case early in baseball’s offseason calendar, the reliever market has seen some significant movement before the other segments of free agency really get rolling, as several notable bullpen arms have found new contracts and/or new teams in recent weeks.
It began with the Cubs inking right-hander Phil Maton to a two-year, $14.5 million deal, a sensible match considering the vacancies in Chicago’s bullpen and Maton’s sneaky strong 2025. Then a couple of arms with prior late-inning experience but also significant recent injury issues found new homes, with former Tigers closer Alex Lange signing with Kansas City and talented lefty Sam Hentges joining San Francisco after some stellar years with Cleveland.
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The action continued as December approached, with Ryan Helsley agreeing to a two-year, $28 million deal to be Baltimore’s closer, a modest pact considering his Cardinals credentials but also a reflection of his ugly post-trade struggles with New York. Unsurprisingly uninterested in a reunion with Helsley, the Mets then struck a three-year, $51 million deal with Devin Williams, indicating their confidence in the right-hander after an uneven season in the Bronx. Earlier this week, Emilio Pagán agreed to a two-year, $20 million deal to stay in Cincinnati, joining Raisel Iglesias — who agreed to a one-year, $16 million deal with Atlanta last month — as a certified closer opting to stay put this winter.
The reliever market has been moving — and with the winter meetings next week, that trend is expected to continue — but there are still enticing options available for bullpen-needy clubs to address their later innings. With Williams (No. 27), Helsley (No. 33) and Iglesias (No. 45) off the board, here’s a look at the status of and potential landing spots for the four other relievers on our Top 50 free agent rankings, plus one more high-profile closer who joined the free-agent pool unexpectedly last month.
No. 11: RHP Edwin Díaz, 32 years old
Profile: Díaz is a game-ending monster, plain and simple. His overpowering fastball-slider combination presents a particularly unpleasant coin-flip for opposing hitters trying to start any sort of rally against him, and while his command and control occasionally elude him, his stuff is often more than good enough to overcome any shortcomings with location. 2025 was also one of his best seasons yet, prompting Díaz to opt out of the two years and $38 million remaining on his contract and reenter the open market as the best closer available.
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Potential fits: If Díaz is indeed seeking a contract similar to the record-setting, five-year, $102 million deal he garnered during his first trip to free agency three years ago, that obviously limits the number of teams that could plausibly be in pursuit of the right-hander. Interestingly, one of those teams, the defending champion, deep-pocketed Dodgers, is reportedly not as inclined to chase a reliever at that exorbitant price and length of contract — perhaps in response to how poorly last year’s outlay to land Tanner Scott went.
If the Dodgers are focusing their efforts elsewhere in the reliever market, a reunion with the Mets — the other team most willing to stretch their payroll to stratospheric heights — looks like where this is headed. By signing Williams and trading away outfield staple Brandon Nimmo, president of baseball operations David Stearns has made it clear he’s willing to shake up the Mets’ roster, regardless of sentimentality. But adding Williams should not preclude New York from retaining Díaz, considering how badly the bullpen needed upgrading at the outset of the winter.
Indeed, pairing Williams with Díaz rather than replacing him would go a long way toward turning the relief corps in Queens into a legitimate strength, rather than running it back with an undermanned unit. It might take some time for the two sides to find common ground on another mega-deal, but Díaz staying put still feels like the likeliest outcome.
No. 28: RHP Robert Suarez, 35
Profile: Suarez is a bit older than some of the other top names on our free-agent rankings, having not debuted in the majors until age 31 following a tremendously successful run as a reliever in Japan. But his four seasons as a Padre — and particularly the past two, when he racked up an MLB-leading 76 saves — were plenty good enough to warrant Suarez declining his $8 million player option for 2026 in search of a more lucrative multiyear deal, even as he enters his late-30s.
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Suarez throws extremely hard and attacks relentlessly with both a four-seamer and a sinker, relying on a nasty changeup when he needs a whiff; there’s no breaking ball to be found here (at least not recently). But because of his top-tier velocity and rare ability to fill up the strike zone as a modern, late-inning reliever, Suarez has been tremendously effective and should continue to be as long as he’s lighting up radar guns. How long his elite heat will last, however, is a worthy question for teams to ponder as they consider committing big dollars to Suarez.
Potential fits: If Díaz ends up returning to Queens, Suarez could be primed for a bidding war between the defending pennant winners to land him on a shorter-term, high-AAV deal. The Dodgers might not want to give Suarez or any reliever more than two years, and that might not be a problem here, considering Suarez’s age. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, have been as aggressive as any team in upgrading their pitching so far this winter, and if they are willing to add the extra year, that could give them an edge.
(From right) Edwin Díaz, Robert Suarez and Luke Weaver are among the relief arms still available on the free-agent market.
(Joseph Raines/Yahoo Sports)
No. 32: RHP Luke Weaver, 32
Profile: After a full-blown breakout with New York in 2024 as a reborn relief ace following years as an unremarkable starter, Weaver continued to shine early in the 2025 season amidst Devin Williams’ dramatic struggles. But while Williams quietly excelled down the stretch, Weaver got notably worse as the season went on and never looked the same after returning from a midseason hamstring injury.
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Like Suarez but with merely good, not elite, velocity, Weaver succeeds without much of a breaking ball, leaning heavily on his four-seam fastball and changeup, with the occasional cutter mixed in. Even with the limited mix, Weaver generally throws strikes and yields both chase and whiff at high rates, a promising combination of skills for a late-inning arm. His most glaring weakness is a proclivity to allow a ton of airborne contact and, in turn, a few too many long balls for comfort for someone handling high leverage. That could make his next home ballpark a worthwhile factor to consider when evaluating his potential landing spots.
Potential fits: Unlike Díaz and Suarez, who in all likelihood will handle the ninth inning for whichever team signs them, Weaver does not need to go to a team that needs a capital-C closer. He has proven effective both in a closing role and as more of a traditional setup guy, broadening his appeal to a wider array of teams seeking bullpen reinforcements. Funnily enough, several of Weaver’s former clubs with which he didn’t have much success look like solid fits for him now, such as Arizona, Cincinnati and Seattle.
But for the purposes of this exercise, let’s pair Weaver with a new team that would mark the seventh major-league club of his winding career: San Francisco. Oracle Park is exactly the kind of homer-unfriendly venue that could help mask Weaver’s flyball tendencies, and the Giants clearly need bullpen help, ranking 29th on FanGraphs Depth Charts’ projecting WAR at each position. Without Randy Rodriguez, who will be rehabbing from Tommy John surgery to start 2026, Ryan Walker is the only proven Giants reliever in-house. Adding Weaver wouldn’t break the bank and would address an obvious need.
No. 44: RHP Brad Keller, 30
Profile: By far the least accomplished free-agent reliever on our Top 50, Keller emerged as a surprising late-inning weapon for the Cubs in 2024, thanks to newfound velocity and decent command of an unusually deep pitch mix for a reliever. That varied arsenal makes sense considering Keller’s background as a starter in Kansas City and could play a role in his future, as some teams might contemplate signing Keller with the intention of converting him back to a rotation role.
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Keller’s relative youth could also factor into the calculus for teams, as it makes it far more likely he could command a two- or even three-year deal, even with just one year of great performance to his name. With encouraging underlying indicators suggesting that his 2025 was far from a fluke — he was getting a ton of ground balls and whiffs as a Cub — Keller is clearly a name to watch for teams targeting upside. That’s true whether he stays in the bullpen or returns to the rotation.
Potential fits: With the possibility of Keller starting and the wide range of opinions his age-29 breakout has inspired, Keller’s market is particularly difficult to pin down; he has a vast array of possible suitors. To highlight one, let’s go with the one team that ranks below San Francisco in projected bullpen WAR as things stand: the Texas Rangers.
Outside of left-hander Robert Garcia, who was acquired in a trade last winter, the Rangers have a boatload of bullpen innings to backfill, with the likes of Hoby Milner, Shawn Armstrong, Jacob Webb, Chris Martin and Phil Maton hitting free agency. Keller could be an intriguing start to those efforts — or even a low-cost candidate to compete for a spot in a Texas rotation that could also use some help.
NR: RHP Pete Fairbanks, 32
Profile: Tampa Bay somewhat surprisingly declined its $11 million option on Fairbanks for 2026, opting to allocate their limited resources to other parts of the roster and make way for a wealth of younger (and cheaper) relievers to step up and handle the high-leverage innings moving forward. It’s something of an abrupt end to the right-hander’s Tampa tenure, as Fairbanks was the team’s longest-tenured pitcher, having arrived via trade in 2019 and establishing himself as a trusted late-inning arm for manager Kevin Cash. A reliable setup man early in his career, Fairbanks eventually evolved into a more traditional closer; he’s one of just nine relievers with at least 20 saves in each of the past three seasons.
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The most encouraging thing about Fairbanks’ 2025 was that he avoided the injured list, appearing in a career-high 61 games after battling a bevy of ailments over the prior three years. Less promising was a second straight season with a strikeout rate hovering around 24%, a steep decline from the gaudy 35% he posted from 2020 to ‘23. Still, Fairbanks recorded a career-high 27 saves with a 2.83 ERA, so he found ways to get the job done.
Potential fits: Fairbanks’ declining velocity and strikeout rates might not portend many more years as a no-doubt ninth-inning option, but he’s still pretty clearly someone who can improve a lot of bullpens around the league, as evidenced by the rapidly growing list of teams that have reportedly been connected to the right-hander early in his free agency.
Of those teams, Arizona and Detroit look like the best fits. The D-backs represent an ideal landing spot if Fairbanks is hoping to remain a closer in the short-term, and the Tigers could be a nice fit if he wants a pitcher-friendly ballpark and is cool with handling setup duties in deference to Will Vest.
