With the final weekend of the regular season upon us and the postseason just around the corner, fans around the league are gearing up for what promises to be another exciting month of playoff baseball.
That being said, things tend to move quickly once the World Series wraps up and the offseason officially begins, so it's never too early to take a look ahead at the upcoming crop of free agents.
What follows will be our initial top 25 big board of the best available free agents around the league this coming winter.
Players are ranked on both the immediate impact they are expected to make upon signing and the long-term impact they are expected to have on the team.
As a result, things like age, past track record and regression indicators had to be taken into account as opposed to simply looking at the surface numbers a player has produced here in 2015.
For position players, offensive abilities carried the most weight, as is generally the case on the free-agent market, but defense was also a factor and you will see that displayed in defensive runs saved (DRS) and ultimate zone rate per 150 games (UZR/150).
With pitchers, ace-caliber arms in their prime obviously took the top spots but after that the value of a mid-level pitcher with age on his side (someone like Mike Leake) had to be weighed against a veteran who may be better in the short term but less useful long term (someone like John Lackey).
Not many relievers made the grade, as they are simply too volatile on a year-in and year-out basis to justify committing big money. There were three bullpen arms that made the cut, though, due in large part to their consistency.
With that, I give you Bleacher Report's initial top 25 big board of upcoming MLB free agents.
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