Sports
All-Free-Agent Team: Closers and corner outfielders aplenty, harder to fill up the middle
The offseason is built for free-agent rankings. Our resident scout Keith Law compiled his top 50 free agents, and our resident GM Jim Bowden ranked his own top 45. A handful of our writers worked together to develop a collective Big Board of the market’s top 40 free agents.
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MLB Top 40 Free Agent Big Board: Welcome to the Juan Soto sweepstakes
But while rankings give a sense of the top talent available, we have to rearrange those lists to better understand where the market is deep and especially thin. Here, then, is a 26-man roster made entirely of free agents, illustrating the ample options for a needy rotation, bullpen or outfield corner, and the relative lack of options for almost any position up the middle.
Lineup
- Willy Adames, SS
- Juan Soto, RF
- Pete Alonso, 1B
- Anthony Santander, DH
- Teoscar Hernández, LF
- Alex Bregman, 3B
- Gleyber Torres, 2B
- Travis d’Arnaud, C
- Harrison Bader, CF
Power in the middle
If you’re in the market for a slugger, this offseason has some options. Five of the 18 players who hit over 30 home runs this season are now free agents (Soto, Santander, Alonso, Hernández, Adames). Bregman also has some pop, and d’Arnaud was top 10 among catchers in slugging percentage. Among the free agents who didn’t make our starting lineup, Randal Grichuk, Joc Pederson, Tyler O’Neill and Kyle Higashioka each slugged at least .475 this year.
Depth at the corners
Our Big Board has enough corner outfielders near the top that we had to stick one of them at designated hitter just to fit them all in our lineup. Even then, there are enough everyday options that a second string could have plenty of impact, with Jurickson Profar (.839 OPS in 2024), Tyler O’Neill (.847) and Joc Pederson (.908) also ranking among our top 26 free agents. Another corner bat, first baseman Christian Walker (.803 OPS, three Gold Gloves), is No. 15 on our list.
Point of weakness
When Cody Bellinger chose to stay with the Chicago Cubs, the free-agent market lost its best center-field option. No other center fielder came particularly close to making our Big Board. For our Free Agents Team we chose Bader (coming off a 1.3 fWAR with the Mets) over other glove-first options Michael A. Taylor and Kiké Hernández. Center field is the market’s thinnest and weakest position, though the market isn’t particularly deep anywhere up the middle.
Jurickson Profar, ranked 17th on our Free Agent Big Board, was a first-time All-Star in 2024. (Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)
Bench
- Christian Walker, 1B
- Ha-Seong Kim, SS/2B
- Jurickson Profar, OF
- Danny Jansen, C
Thin in the infield
Positionally, this is not a great way to build a big-league bench. There’s no backup third baseman, no backup center fielder, and we’re not sure when our utility man is going to be ready (or how much his shoulder surgery will impact his ability to play shortstop). But the options — especially in the infield — are limited. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt ranks No. 29, but our Big Board includes no other infielders who aren’t listed here. The ones that came closest are Carlos Santana, José Iglesias, Yoán Moncada and Korean infielder Hye-seong Kim, and there are reasons to wonder about each of those in an everyday role. Second baseman Jorge Polanco could be interesting as a bounce-back candidate, and shortstop Paul DeJong has hit his way back onto the map after a good season.
Options behind the plate
There are no catchers on our Big Board, but d’Arnaud and Jansen did generate some bottom-of-the-list consideration, and the free-agent market also has Higashioka, Carson Kelly, Gary Sánchez, Elías Díaz, Jacob Stallings and others who have been solid big-league catchers in recent years. This market doesn’t necessarily have a standout everyday catcher, but those are few and far between in today’s game. For teams trying to build a catching duo, free agency might offer a few solutions.
Lefty bats
For our backup outfielder, we just went with the highest name remaining from the Big Board (Profar), but the market notably has a decent number of left-handed options that could be useful in a platoon. Joc Pederson (No. 26), Max Kepler (34), Alex Verdugo (38) and Michael Conforto (40) made our Big Board, and Jesse Winker just missed. Jason Heyward is also a free agent after providing some left-handed balance for a few contenders (the Dodgers and Astros) this past season.
Rotation
- Corbin Burnes, RHP
- Max Fried, LHP
- Blake Snell, RHP
- Jack Flaherty, RHP
- Sean Manaea, LHP
Impact starters
Our Big Board’s top 12 includes six starting pitchers, but we didn’t include No. 3 Roki Sasaki in our All-Free Agent rotation because his situation is unique and some of his value is tied to his youth (23 years old) and the fact he’ll have to sign relatively cheap. Among proven big-league starters, this free-agent market includes four of the top 20 in ERA this past season. Burnes is unmistakably the top arm in the class, and the depth of No. 1 starters depends on whether teams believe the recent performances of Flaherty and Manaea are sustainable.
Next tier
Almost half of our top 25 free agents are mid-rotation-or-better arms — Nathan Eovaldi (No. 13 on the Big Board), Yusei Kikuchi (14), Shane Bieber (20), Walker Buehler (21), Luis Severino (23), and Nick Martinez (25) — but they come with a vast array of questions ranging from age to health to recent inconsistency. Bieber, in particular, is interesting given that he’s a Cy Young winner returning from Tommy John surgery and doesn’t turn 30 until the end of May. Martinez is 34, but he’s coming off a career year that saw him pitch well down the stretch as a full-time starter.
A question of age
The bottom of our Big Board is loaded with successful but uncertain starting pitchers. Tomoyuki Sugano, Matthew Boyd, José Quintana and Max Scherzer each rank between 35 and 39 on our list, and all will be aged between 34 and 40 next season. The first player who missed the cut for our Big Board was Charlie Morton, another stater who turns 41 later this month. A few spots below Morton was Justin Verlander, who’s almost 42. Sugano has never pitched in the majors. Boyd’s made 23 starts the past three years combined. Scherzer made just nine starts this season. Which can be trusted to carry a starter’s workload next year?
Bullpen
- Tanner Scott, LHP
- Jeff Hoffman, RHP
- Clay Holmes, RHP
- Carlos Estévez, RHP
- Blake Treinen, RHP
- Kirby Yates, RHP
- Kenley Jansen, RHP
- David Robertson, RHP
Impact at the top
Six of these eight relievers have been All-Stars within the past two seasons. The only exceptions are Treinen (who’s been an All-Star in the past and most recently was the top arm in the Dodgers’ postseason bullpen) and Robertson (another former All-Star who along with Yates, Scott, Jansen, Hoffman and Estévez ranked in the top 20 in Win Probability Added this season). Four other free agents — Chris Martin, Hector Neris, Paul Sewald and Lucas Sims — were top 10 in Win Probability Added in 2023. There’s potential for impact here.
Closers for hire
This free-agent class is especially deep in pitchers with extensive closer experience. Eleven free agents — Jansen, Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman, Robertson, Will Smith, Neris, Yates, Sewald, Estévez, Treinen and Holmes — rank top 25 in saves among active players, and that list doesn’t include Scott, who’s had double-digit saves the past three years and made the All-Star team last year. Ninth-inning experience is readily available this winter.
From the left side
We chose our bullpen by picking every reliever on our Big Board, plus the two who came closest to making the cut. If we wanted a second lefty, though, Chapman and Danny Coulombe — surprisingly let go by the Orioles — would warrant some consideration. A.J. Minter, Tim Hill and Jalen Beeks are among the other free-agent lefties who could help balance a bullpen.
(Top photo of Pete Alonso: Harry How / Getty Images)
Sports
Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit
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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue.
Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June.
Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male.
Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling.
“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.
Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case.
(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital.
“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13.
Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters.
With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.
Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice.
Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”
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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.
“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said.
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Sports
Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush
Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.
“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.
Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.
On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.
The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.
Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.
Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.
(Lindsey Wasson / AP)
The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.
Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.
His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”
Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.
Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.
A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.
Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.
A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.
The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.
He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.
“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”
Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.
“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.
“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”
Sports
Keith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death
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Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead.
“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights.
Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.
“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann.
One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”
Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”
Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.
After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.
In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.
Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post.
In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”
Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media.
Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.
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Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death.
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