Contract Crowdsourcing 2025-26: Ballot 6 of 12
Free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series. As in other recent seasons, FanGraphs is once again facilitating a contract crowdsourcing project, with the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowd to better understand and project the 2025-26 free agent market.
In recent years, we’ve added a few features to these ballots based on reader feedback. You now have the option to indicate that a player will only receive a minor league contract, or won’t receive one at all. If there is a player option, team option, or opt out in a player’s contract, you’ll be able to indicate whether you think he will remain with his current team or become a free agent. Numbers are prorated to full season where noted. Unless otherwise indicated, the projected WAR figures are from the first cut of the 2026 Steamer600 projections.
Below are ballots for eight of this year’s free agents — in this case, a group of position players, many of whom play the outfield.
Meg is the editor-in-chief of FanGraphs and the co-host of Effectively Wild. Prior to joining FanGraphs, her work appeared at Baseball Prospectus, Lookout Landing, and Just A Bit Outside. You can follow her on Bluesky @megrowler.fangraphs.com.
I am honestly surprised that Mullins (1.8) has a higher projection than Bader (1.5). I know Steamer rightly looks at more than just the past year and I guess Mullins is slightly younger and has demonstrated the higher ceiling, but I still feel like I would prefer Bader in 2026, both offensively and defensively.
And no, I am not a Mets fan, but maybe I am still reading too much into Mullins’ post-trade struggles. I guess I have no idea what contract he will get.
I think he needs a weak side platoon partner now. His defense was down this year, but sprint speed was still good. Maybe he just ran into some bad luck on defense. If teams see him as a corner outfielder only, I think his market will be way down.