Offseason Handbook: Ranking 6 Interesting Minor-League Free-Agent Pitchers for Brewers

There is absolutely nothing glamorous about this segment of the player market. But sometimes, it's a rich vein to tap, especially as a way to maintain flexibility at the front end of an offseason.

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At the end of each season, a substantial number of players reach MLB free agency, because they exceeded six years of official service time in the big leagues during that campaign. These are the famous names, and the ones who go on to make hundreds of millions of dollars—or, in some cases, just hundreds of thousands. Still, this is what you're thinking of when someone says "baseball free agency".

There is, however, a much less lucrative and thrilling way to reach free agency. Five days after the conclusion of the World Series, any player who has played at least six full professional seasons and is not on the 40-man roster for an MLB team can elect free agency, unless they're already signed to a multi-year minor-league deal. Thus, over 500 players become free agents each November almost without the baseball world noticing. In each class, somewhere around half are headed for some version of retirement, be that a voluntary change of lane or vocation or a lack of demand so profound that they end up having to pitch in an independent or foreign league.

Let's talk about the guys with a chance to belong to the other half. In fact, let's talk about the guys who might belong to the upper decile of that better half, such that they might have a big-league career in front of them even after what feels like a major setback for a player with those aspirations. The Brewers signed Blake Perkins two years ago, after he became a free agent this way. We'll confine ourselves to pitching, this time, but even so, think of each of these guys as a possible answer to the question: "Who's the next Blake Perkins?"