Who will sign Shohei Ohtani to biggest MLB deal? Here are the top 35 free agents.

LOS ANGELES — The current baseball free-agent market is stocked with quality starting pitchers. Yet it's a starter who can't pitch until 2025 that could sign the largest contract in baseball history.

Shohei Ohtani, 29, spent the six seasons leading into free agency with the Angels, establishing himself as perhaps the best hitter in the major leagues and one of the best pitchers.

So even though recovery from surgery to repair a torn UCL in his right elbow will restrict him to designated hitter duties in 2024, Ohtani is projected to come away with a contract worth in excess of $500 million over 10 to 12 years.

No other free agent this offseason will come anywhere close to that number, although the next-most lucrative contract could also be a player from Japan: right-handed starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Starting pitchers are prominent among the rest of the top free agents. Only one closer — left-hander Josh Hader — seems a sure thing. And most position players are on the wrong side of age 30, lack a track record of consistent production or have identifiable flaws in their game.

Here are the top 35 free agents. Career and 2023 wins above replacement (WAR) are included from Baseball-Reference.com.

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NAME, AGE, POSITIONS, bWAR 2023, CAREER

— Shohei Ohtani, 29, RHP/DH, 10, 34: Greatest player in the history of baseball? Impossible to say. Highest paid player in the history of baseball? Anyone will be able to do the math after Ohtani signs a contract this offseason.