Building a Team of Free Agents on a Budget
There is no need to emphasize how bizarre this off-season has been. By this time last year, the best available free agents were Matt Wieters and Jason Hammel. This year, there are enough available free agents to create an all star team. With that in mind, I began to wonder if a team could actually be competitive by signing 25 free agents. A super-team of current free agents would undoubtedly contend this year. However, it would also require a payroll in the range of $300MM. If such a team had to stay within the luxury tax threshold, it would need to make significant cuts.
To satisfy my curiosity, I made a spreadsheet of WAR and salary projections for all of the remaining free agents. I attempted to construct the best teams possible within a variety of budgets, and compared my projected WAR totals to teams with similar payrolls. Constructing a great team was more challenging than I expected. I encourage readers to give it a try.
Note: Most contract values are based on a combination of reported offers, the MLBTR free agent predictions, and recent signings. It is likely that many of these players will sign deals that are far off my projections.
Download the Team Builder:
Click Here or the link below to download the team builder spreadsheet. The file should be titled “Free Agent Team Builder 2018”. I suggest using Excel, I haven’t tested it on other programs.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/aii5ewmhabpna8q/Free%20Agent%20Team%20Builder%20February%202018.xlsx?dl=0
Create your own free agent super-team, or see if you can build a competitive roster on a budget. Feel free to comment or share your team, and see how your team stacks up against mine.
Here are two examples of teams I created:
Small Market Team ($90MM Payroll)
| Pos. | Name | 2017 WAR | DC Proj. WAR | My Proj. WAR | Proj. AAV | Years | Total Value |
| Starting Lineup | |||||||
| CF | Ben Revere | 0.0 | 0.0 | -0.1 | $2.0MM | 1 | $2.0MM |
| SS | Eduardo Nunez | 2.2 | 1.7 | 2.2 | $8.5MM | 2 | $17.0MM |
| 3B | Todd Frazier | 3.0 | 2.4 | 2.3 | $11.0MM | 4 | $44.0MM |
| DH | Lucas Duda | 1.1 | 1.8 | 1.3 | $7.0MM | 2 | $14.0MM |
| RF | Jose Bautista | -0.5 | 0.0 | 0.2 | $5.0MM | 1 | $5.0MM |
| LF | Melky Cabrera | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.2 | $3.0MM | 1 | $3.0MM |
| 1B | Mike Napoli | -0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | $2.5MM | 1 | $2.5MM |
| 2B | Chase Utley | 1.3 | 0.0 | 0.1 | $2.0MM | 1 | $2.0MM |
| C | Carlos Ruiz | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.2 | $2.5MM | 1 | $2.5MM |
| Bench | |||||||
| C | Jose Lobaton | -0.6 | 0.2 | -0.1 | $1.5MM | 1 | $1.5MM |
| IF | Cliff Pennington | 0.4 | -0.1 | 0.1 | $1.5MM | 1 | $1.5MM |
| OF | Craig Gentry | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | $1.0MM | 1 | $1.0MM |
| OF | Alex Presley | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | $1.0MM | 1 | $1.0MM |
| Rotation | |||||||
| SP | Alex Cobb | 2.4 | 1.7 | 2.0 | $14.5MM | 4 | $58.0MM |
| SP | Jeremy Hellickson | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.7 | $5.5MM | 1 | $5.5MM |
| SP | Brett Anderson | 0.8 | 1.7 | 0.5 | $5.0MM | 1 | $5.0MM |
| SP | Jesse Chavez | 0.3 | 0.1 | -0.2 | $3.0MM | 1 | $3.0MM |
| SP | Nick Martinez | 0.0 | 0.3 | -0.2 | $2.0MM | 1 | $2.0MM |
| Bullpen | |||||||
| CP | Huston Street | 0.1 | -0.1 | 0.0 | $2.0MM | 1 | $2.0MM |
| SU | Tyler Clippard | 0.2 | -0.1 | 0.3 | $3.0MM | 1 | $3.0MM |
| SU | Fernando Abad | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 | $1.5MM | 1 | $1.5MM |
| MR | Luke Hocheaver | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | $1.5MM | 1 | $1.5MM |
| MR | Zac Rosscup | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | $1.0MM | 1 | $1.0MM |
| MR | Shae Simmons | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | $1.0MM | 1 | $1.0MM |
| LR | Henderson Alvarez | -0.1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | $1.5MM | 1 | $1.5MM |
| 2017 WAR | DC Proj. WAR | My Proj. WAR | |||||
| Total WAR | 11.6 | 11.3 | 10.5 | ||||
| 2018 Payroll and Total Commitments | $90.0MM | $182.0MM | |||||
Big Market Team ($197MM Payroll)
| Pos. | Name | 2017 WAR | DC Proj. WAR | My Proj. WAR | Proj. AAV | Years | Total Value |
| Starting Lineup | |||||||
| CF | Jon Jay | 1.6 | 0.5 | 1.5 | $7.0MM | 2 | $14.0MM |
| SS | Eduardo Nunez | 2.2 | 1.7 | 2.2 | $8.5MM | 2 | $17.0MM |
| RF | J.D. Martinez | 3.8 | 2.7 | 4.4 | $25.0MM | 6 | $150.0MM |
| 1B | Eric Hosmer | 4.1 | 2.8 | 2.7 | $20.0MM | 7 | $140.0MM |
| 3B | Todd Frazier | 3.0 | 2.4 | 2.3 | $11.0MM | 4 | $44.0MM |
| LF | Carlos Gonzalez | -0.2 | 1.0 | 0.9 | $10.0MM | 1 | $10.0MM |
| C | Jonathan Lucroy | 1.2 | 2.4 | 2.0 | $10.0MM | 2 | $20.0MM |
| DH | Melky Cabrera | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.2 | $3.0MM | 1 | $3.0MM |
| 2B | Brandon Phillips | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.9 | $6.0MM | 1 | $6.0MM |
| Bench | |||||||
| C | Jose Lobaton | -0.6 | 0.2 | -0.1 | $1.5MM | 1 | $1.5MM |
| IF | Cliff Pennington | 0.4 | -0.1 | 0.1 | $1.5MM | 1 | $1.5MM |
| OF | Craig Gentry | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | $1.0MM | 1 | $1.0MM |
| OF | Seth Smith | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 | $2.5MM | 1 | $2.5MM |
| Rotation | |||||||
| SP | Yu Darvish | 3.5 | 3.6 | 3.8 | $26.0MM | 6 | $156.0MM |
| SP | Alex Cobb | 2.4 | 1.7 | 2.0 | $14.5MM | 4 | $58.0MM |
| SP | Andrew Cashner | 1.9 | 0.9 | 1.3 | $8.5MM | 2 | $17.0MM |
| SP | Jeremy Hellickson | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.7 | $5.5MM | 1 | $5.5MM |
| SP | Brett Anderson | 0.8 | 1.7 | 0.5 | $5.0MM | 1 | $5.0MM |
| Bullpen | |||||||
| CP | Greg Holland | 1.1 | 0.1 | 1.3 | $11.5MM | 3 | $34.5MM |
| RP | Seung Hwan Oh | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.4 | $5.0MM | 1 | $5.0MM |
| SU | Tony Watson | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.4 | $5.0MM | 2 | $10.0MM |
| MR | Tyler Clippard | 0.2 | -0.1 | 0.0 | $3.0MM | 1 | $3.0MM |
| MR | Fernando Abad | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | $1.5MM | 1 | $1.5MM |
| MR | Luke Hocheaver | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | $1.5MM | 1 | $1.5MM |
| LR | Jesse Chavez | 0.3 | 0.1 | -0.2 | $3.0MM | 1 | $3.0MM |
| 2017 WAR | DC Proj. WAR | My Proj. WAR | |||||
| Total WAR | 28.7 | 24.0 | 27.7 | ||||
| 2018 Payroll and Total Commitments | $197.0MM | $710.5MM | |||||
My Analysis:
Based purely on WAR projections, my small market team would be the worst team in baseball. It’s worth noting that this spreadsheet has some flaws. Projected WAR would increase with a full 40 man roster, but so would payroll obligations. With that in mind, this team would still doubtfully have a winning record. There is some potential upside throughout the roster, but my lineup is heavily reliant on veteran players returning to old form. The bullpen is probably the biggest weakness, but spending my budget on relief pitching would have been a tough decision to make.
The big market team is much more promising. However, my projected WAR would still rank them among the bottom tier of teams. With some added depth, I think this team would have a winning record, but contending for a World Series would be a bit of a reach. With such a high payroll, this team would likely also rank among the teams getting the lowest amount of value for each player.
In a way, I believe this project exemplifies one reason why the free agent market has been so stagnant. While these teams are respectable, they would project poorly compared to others. I knew beforehand it would be tough to build a team paying 25 players for past performance, but attempting to put these teams together helped me further appreciate the value of homegrown talent.
Now it’s your turn to build a team, download the spreadsheet and give it a shot! If you have any thoughts or anything to add, please feel free to comment below.