MLB’s Unsigned Veteran Pitchers Could Create a Competitive Spring Training Roster

This season's crop of free agents in Major League Baseball has just about been picked clean.

But not entirely!

Several unhusked stalks of ballplayers still remain standing in the cornfield, athletes with extensive résumès trying to wish themselves into a major league job. Most will find work eventually, but how can they stay sharp until it happens?

If they wanted to, and it would be fun for a week or two in the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues, the remaining free agents could assemble to make a pretty decent barnstorming club in Spring Training. Hasn't super-agent Scott Boras suggested this periodically to help break a free-agent logjam in a particularly odd offseason? Watch for the suggestion again once the upcoming lockout ends. Assuming it does.

For now, let's focus on hope, not doom. Imagine a split-squad affair hosted by, say, the Arizona Diamondbacks at Salt River Fields. Instead of fans seeing the D-backs face lower half of the Los Angeles Angels, they instead watched our Free Agent Barnstormers.

Available free agent outfielders

The outfield would consist of 37-year-old Starling Marte, 30-year-old Alex Verdugo, plus a platoon of 32-year-old Jesse Winker and 38-year-old Tommy Pham.

Marte can still play, having hit .270/.335/.410 with nine home runs in 98 games for the New York Mets in 2025. It was good for about 12 percent better than league average, and worth 1.0 WAR on Baseball Reference (less on Fangraphs). Marte is rumored to be negotiating with the Kansas City Royals, so our star Barnstormer might not be around for the entire tour. But he's probably better than a third of the league's leadoff hitters. And yet, he's still a free agent, even as we approach the month of March.

So are several infielders you've probably heard of. They include 41-year-old Justin Turner, 31-year-old Rowdy Tellez, 36-year-old Jose Iglesias, 29-year-old Luis Urías and 36-year-old Jon Berti. Power, defense, positional versatility. Fan friendliness.

The biggest lineup attraction of all could be DH Andrew McCutchen. He's easy to root for, and one of the best players of his generation -- non-Hall of Fame class. Cutch hit .239/.333/.367 with 13 homers in 135 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2025, and seems... pretty close to hanging it up. A farewell tour in the sunshine of spring would be a fine way for him to find one last team to end his career.

The best unit on the Barnstormers would be the pitching, which makes sense because most of the free-agent arms are just waiting for more of their signed counterparts to go down with injuries. In that light, it might make it tough to persuade pitchers to actually pitch in games for the Barnstormers.

But if we could, here's the rotation:

30-year-old right-hander Zack Littell
30-year-old righty Lucas Giolito
35-year-old righty Marcus Stroman
34-year-old righty Jon Gray
39-year-old left-hander Wade Miley

Is that rotation better than the White Sox or Rockies? It's not, but it's also not far off. Littell posted a 3.81 ERA with 130 strikeouts in 32 starts for the Rays and Reds in 2025. Giolito had a 3.41 ERA in 26 starts for the Red Sox. Heck, if he and Littell were built up, the Barnstormers might just take the first two games of this tour.

Best of all, if Giolito and Pham were in the same clubhouse at the same time, the social/philosophical/political conversations would be epic. MLB Network should be following the Barnstormers around just for this dynamic.

Hey, they also need a bullpen, which could be a problem with the real-life free-agent relief corps stretched thin. But left-handers Danny Coulombe and Jalen Beeks are both going to help some major league team in 2026, mark it down. And with the mercurial nature of relief pitching in general, who is to stay that right-handers José Leclerc, Michael Kopech, Kendall Graveman and Tommy Kahnle wouldn't come together to comprise a middle-of-the-pack bullpen on any major league squad? As long as they don't strain something.

Who can we get to manage this motley crew? Dave Martinez is available, but after he said failure is "never on coaching," he might find it hard to keep the Barnstormers attention. (Not out loud, Dave.) Bud Black and Rocco Baldelli are not managing, and have nice consultant jobs right now, so they're probably unavailable.

Which means we could leave stewardship up to Pham as a player-manager. Having him tell Winker what to do would make the best reality TV programming of all.

There's only a few weeks left of Spring Training left. Let's make this happen, MLB.