Major League Baseball’s free agency season opens Thursday, and it won’t be like the last two. 

For starters, Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto are not on the market after signing deals in the last two years worth a combined $1.47 billion. Soto’s contract with the New York Mets extends 15 years through the 2039 season, while the Los Angeles Dodgers have Ohtani signed for another eight seasons. No one is going to get Ohtani or Soto money this winter.

Also, there’s a question about how lucrative this year’s market will be, considering the upcoming collective bargaining deadline on Dec. 1, 2026 for a new Basic Agreement. Teams could be reticent to sign many long-term deals, given pending changes.

The top free agents this year are outfielder Kyle Tucker, right-hander Dylan Cease, designated hitter Kyle Schwarber and shortstop Bo Bichette.

Tucker played one season with the Chicago Cubs after his trade there from Houston and had 22 homers and 25 stolen bases while missing 26 games because of injuries. The four-time All-Star, who was the No. 5 overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft, has hit at least 20 home runs in five consecutive seasons.

Cease leaves the San Diego Padres with a depleted pitching staff considering the probable departures of Michael King and closer Robert Suarez, also to free agency, and Yu Darvish having a second Tommy John surgery.

Schwarber, the 2025 All-Star Game MVP, led the National League with 56 homers and MLB with 132 RBIs for the Philadelphia Phillies. Bichette, a .294 lifetime hitter, will explore his options having played his entire seven-year career with the Toronto Blue Jays, who just lost the World Series to the Dodgers.

Also, Cody Bellinger, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso—all Scott Boras clients—will be back on the market this offseason, sans the shackles of the qualifying offer, this year pegged at $22.03 million for one season.

“It kills star players, who maybe are in that gap where they maybe haven’t had their best season, but had a good season,” Boras said earlier this year. “And the teams say, ‘Well, we’ll pass.’”

Two years ago, Boras couldn’t get solid deals for a number of his free agents—including Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery–and very late in the process, they signed one-year deals with a series of player opt-outs after one or two seasons. Players can’t be tagged with the qualifying offer more than once.

Once the players were unburdened by the qualifying offer, they signed bigger deals. Chapman was re-signed by the San Francisco Giants at the end of the 2024 season for six years, $151 million; last offseason, Snell inked a five-year, $182 million deal with the Dodgers.

Bellinger had two opt-out options with the Cubs, and when he declined an early termination option last year, Chicago traded him to the New York Yankees. Bellinger opted out of his final contract year this week to become a free agent.

Bregman and Alonso struggled to find the offers they wanted last offseason when they became free agents but were tagged with the qualifying offer. They found no takers on long-term deals. Bregman signed on Feb. 1 with Boston for a deal that paid him $40 million, with an opt-out he just exercised. Alonso, who turned down a more lucrative deal with Toronto and returned to the Mets on Feb. 12 for $30 million, has also opted out.

They’re hoping the market will be much more lucrative for them now. Alonso, though, sounds like he’s open to returning to the Mets on a bigger deal and again is trying to leverage his position. 

“We’ll see what happens with everything,” Alonso said at the end of the regular season. “There’s no guarantees. But I’ve appreciated it here. The fans have been awesome. I’ve grown up in this organization, and what I’ve done here, I’m really proud of the mark I’ve left. It would be great, but we’ll see what happens.”

Alonso’s numbers improved in 2025 compared to 2024: His batting average from .240 to .272, homers from 34 to 38 and RBIs from 88 to 126. He posted his best on-base plus slugging since his standout rookie season in 2019 at .871.

The Mets had a luxury tax payroll last season of $341.2 million, the second highest in MLB, but failed to make the playoffs. And with 11 free agents, including closer Edwin Diaz, who also opted out of his contract, the team has $222.6 million committed to players next season, again behind the Dodgers.

The Mets obviously have some decisions to make.

“We didn’t do a good enough job fortifying our team when we had injuries mid-season,” David Stearns, the Mets president of baseball operations, said. “Our defense wasn’t good enough and that certainly led to our pitching challenges.”

The Yankees, with a payroll last season of $318 million—third highest in MLB—and $204.3 million committed, must improve to catch the Blue Jays in their own division. They finished tied with them at 94-68, but lost the season series and wound up second in the American League East to a team that went down to the final pitch this past Saturday night before losing the World Series to the Dodgers. Including the playoffs, the Yanks lost 11 of the 17 games the two teams played.

The Yankees want to re-sign Bellinger but have nine free agents, including center fielder Trent Grisham, who had a career year with 34 homers and 74 RBIs. Bichette could be a good fit to replace the .212-hitting Anthony Volpe at shortstop but won’t come cheap. Volpe just had left shoulder surgery and is projected to be out for at least six months.

“We’ll look to attack our areas of weakness to the best of our abilities with what’s available and hope our strengths remain our strengths so we can go ahead and take another shot,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said.