As the baseball industry and several massive fan bases eagerly wait to find out which team will sign superstar outfielder Juan Soto, there has already been significant movement in another part of the free-agent market: starting pitching. This dynamic was also in play a year ago, when Aaron Nola, Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda and Luis Severino all signed before December’s winter meetings, but last winter saw two of the market’s top starters, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, have their free agencies stretch all the way to March. We’re a long way from knowing which, if any, of this year’s top free-agent arms will remain unsigned as spring training camps open, but the early movement suggests a steady stream of rotation additions could be on deck in the coming weeks.
Excluding Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki — whose market is entirely different due to international amateur bonus rules — Yahoo Sports’ Top 50 free agent listfeatured 19 starting pitchers. Five of them — Blake Snell (No. 6), Yusei Kikuchi …