MLB free agency is officially rocking and rolling, and it's understandable that everyone's attention right now is fixated on the biggest names: your Kyle Tuckers, Bo Bichettes and Dylan Ceases, stars who can change the trajectory of entire franchises with the stroke of a pen.
But it's also true that you don't win World Series titles with stars alone. It takes a balanced roster to make it through a 162-game gauntlet and into October, and what teams do at the margins over the offseason matters almost as much as landing a big fish.
Where does that kind of hidden value lie in this year's market? To answer that question, we've assembled the All-Buy Low Team, one guy at each position that could prove to be a steal despite flying under the radar in 2025.
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Finding the best bargain MLB free agents at every position
C: Danny Jansen
Jansen did typically solid work serving as William Contreras' backup in Milwaukee down the stretch, slashing .254/.346/.433 with three homers in 25 games. And this is nothing new: He's quietly become one of the better hitting catchers in the sport, with decent pop and elite on-base skills.
Staying healthy has been the issue throughout his career, but he's coming off a year in which he played 98 games. He's not the smoothest defender behind the plate, but it's pretty easy to find a great defender as your backup catcher. The bat is pretty rare at the position, and worth investing in.
1B: Rhys Hoskins
Speaking of former Brewers with recent injury concerns! Hoskins looked like he was on his way to a bounce-back season in 2025, slashing .254/.346/.433 with 12 homers across 82 games — exactly the sort of high-OBP, 25-homer bat he'd been during his heyday in Philly.
And then he got hurt, and by the time he came back in September, he'd lost his starting job to Andrew Vaughn. But Hoskins will only be 33 come next Opening Day; he should still have a prime year or two left in him, and he proved this year that he can still play to the back of his baseball card. That's not a star, but it's a guy you can feel good about starting at a fraction of the cost.
2B: Thairo Estrada
You'd be forgiven for not paying attention to anything that happened with the Colorado Rockies in 2025, and it's not like Estrada was immune, posting an ugly .655 OPS across 39 injury-marred games. And staying healthy has been a real problem over the last couple of years.
The last time he was healthy, though, he was a 3.5-win player per FanGraphs, slashing .271/.315/.416 for the San Francisco Giants with 14 homers, 23 steals and great defense in both the infield and outfield. That's a pretty good player, to say the least, and he won't even turn 30 until February. You won't have to pay him like a starter; you can simply bring him in in the hopes that he'll be a versatile bench piece, with the chance for much more.
3B: Kazuma Okamoto
Okamoto isn't bouncing back from anything, really; he's been a star in Japan for over a decade, posting an .882 OPS across his 11 years in NPB. But he still fits the buy-low framework here, because while everyone's focused on his countryman Munetaka Murakami, there's a chance that Okamoto could drastically outperform him for less money.
Unlike Murakami, Okamoto doesn't come with any strikeout questions; in fact, he walked as often as he whiffed this past season. All he does is hit, and while he won't offer a ton of defensive value, there's a chance he emerges as one of the best bats to make the jump across the Pacific.
SS: Ha-Seong Kim
Shoulder surgery scuttled Kim's 2025 season before it even began, limiting him to just 48 games between the Rays and Braves. But he's healthy this time around, and the league would do well to remember who he was just a couple of years ago: a dynamic fielder and base-runner who got on base enough to tap into his considerable wheels.
Kim is never going to hit for a ton of power. But his elite plate approach gives him a reasonable floor offensively, and he's an above-average defender at a premium position plus one of the better base-runners in the league. Paying up for Bo Bichette or trading for Corey Seager is enticing, but Kim could be a steal.
OF: Michael Conforto, Cedric Mullins, Lane Thomas
Sure, we wouldn't recommend assembling this as your outfield for 2026. But there's reason to buy into all three of these guys next season.
Dodgers fans really, really don't want to hear this considering just how miserable he was in L.A. this year, but evidence suggests that Conforto deserved better than he got. Most of his underlying metrics were about in line with his career norms, with a fluky .247 batting average tanking things. Put him in a good park for lefty hitting, and he should get back to something closer to 2024, when he posted a 115 OPS+.
Mullins' game appeared to crater in 2025, and he was downright awful upon being sent to the Mets at the trade deadline. But really, under the hood he was the same player he's been for years now: A good athlete and solid center fielder who uses a pulled fly ball-heavy approach to punch above his weight offensively. A spike in K rate this year is concerning, but he's still just 31; put him in a park that boosts lefty power — Philly, perhaps? — and he could deliver league-average offense and valuable D at a premium position.
The case for Thomas is much simpler: His 2025 season was dead on arrival because of a foot injury that would eventually require surgery, but from 2022-2024, he posted a 106 OPS+ while playing a credible center field. In a barren outfield market beyond the biggest names, the physical tools here are well worth betting on; you'll have to pay a ton of money to find power/speed potential better than his.
SP: RHP Michael King
King looked like he was on track to be baseball's next ace after a stellar 2024 campaign, but inflammation in his right shoulder and left knee limited him to just 15 starts this year. Those starts were uncharacteristically ugly, with a 3.44 ERA (up from 2.95 in 2024) and a 4.42 FIP.
But that FIP is also a clue as to what went wrong. King's 1.47 HR/9 was fueled by a goofy-high 13.2% HR/FB rate, well above league average. That should normalize next year, and assuming he's able to stay healthy, there's no reason he can't be the same guy he was two years ago (and in 2023 with the New York Yankees). The evidence suggests that King is one of the best starters in the sport, bar none, who just had a contract year from hell. He won't come cheap, but that bad luck could depress his value enough to make him the bargain of the winter.
RP: Hunter Harvey
It's been a frustrating couple of years for Harvey. A former top prospect turned high-leverage reliever, he pitched to a 4.44 ERA in 2024 and then made just 12 appearances this past season due to shoulder and adductor injuries.
His 3.52 FIP two years ago, though, points to bad luck, and he was his usual excellent self this year when he was healthy. From 2022-2023, he'd transformed himself into a genuinely elite late-game arm, with a 2.70 ERA and 10.1 K/9. Some team is going to get a potential closer or set-up man on the cheap this winter.