Juan Soto is the undisputed best free agent of this year's class. Not only is he coming off a season in which he tallied 41 home runs and 109 runs batted in on an elite slash line of .288/.419/.569, his age of 26 years old also makes him a rarity on the free-agent market — a superstar talent who is still in the middle of his prime.

Nonetheless, while the focus of many teams, most prominently the New York Yankees', will be dedicated towards signing Soto, there are plenty of other players on the open market who could help swing the World Series picture for next season. There isn't a clear-cut second-best free agent behind Soto, however, and a few MLB executives were split in their opinion in this regard.

In a poll conducted by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, the player to receive the most votes for the distinction of being the second-best free agent in this year's class is none other than Corbin Burnes, who garnered eight of 16 votes. The six other votes were split among Willy Adames (five votes), Blake Snell (two votes), and Max Fried (one vote).

Burnes stood out to those executives due to his durability and consistency on the mound. As Feinsand pointed out, Burnes, who pitched for the Baltimore Orioles last season, has pitched 816.2 innings since 2020 — the third-most in the MLB during that span.

“I think it’s so incredibly difficult to get your hands on a frontline starter who has the ability to strike out hitters, keep walks down and who is built to pitch innings. He’s a horse, and he’ll pitch at just 30 years old. So, theoretically, there should be a number of good years ahead of him,” an anonymous National League executive said.

Starting pitching is as valuable as ever, and there should be a bidding war commencing soon for Burnes. The Orioles will definitely prefer to keep their best starting pitcher for last season around, but he could be priced out from their budget especially if the league's highest-spending teams join the Burnes sweepstakes.

Corbin Burnes leads standout starting pitching options in Juan Soto-led free agency

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Teams that will miss out on the stability that Corbin Burnes can provide any starting rotation with will have a few other options available to bolster the squad. In particular, Blake Snell and Max Fried are two southpaw pitchers with a history of being difficult to hit.

However, Snell and Fried come with bigger durability issues. Snell, before rounding into form late in the season for the San Francisco Giants, dealt with a groin injury. Fried also missed a good chunk of the 2023 season. Both Snell and Fried are older options than Burnes as well.

The worry about Burnes, however, is his declining strikeout rate, which means that he isn't exactly head and shoulders better than Snell and Fried.

“Snell positioned himself nicely to land the payday he sought last offseason. Burnes’ declining strikeout rate could make Snell the preferred choice between those two for many clubs,” the NL executive added.