A few stars are still lingering on MLB's free-agent market, but enough ink has been spilled on those guys already.

Instead of adding to the spill, let's shift the spotlight to six free agents—initially eight before Carlos Santana signed with the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday and Joc Pederson signed with the Texas Rangers on Monday—who deserve more recognition than they're getting.

This is to say they're underrated, and the trouble with that word is that it implies objectivity but is wholly subjective. We can rationalize the "rated" side of this all-the-live-long day, but it's ultimately a feel thing.

This list will succeed if you come away thinking "Woah, I didn't realize that guy was that good" about one or more players on this list. Let's just leave it at that.

Let's check 'em off in alphabetical order and make predictions as we go.

OF Randal Grichuk

Age: 33

2024 Stats: 106 G, 279 PA, 12 HR, 0 SB, .291 AVG, .348 OBP, .528 SLG

Why He's Underrated

When Randal Grichuk exited the 2023 season, he had 10 major league campaigns and 191 home runs under his belt. That's an average of 19 homers per year, though his average of 27 per 162 games was more instructive.

It wasn't until this year, however, that Grichuk set career highs for average, OBP and OPS+.

It helped that the Arizona Diamondbacks made sure that Grichuk, a righty swinger, saw a higher share of action against left-handed pitching than ever before. Yet to his credit, he was an above-average hitter against both lefties (151 wRC+) and righties (116 wRC+).

Even if teams merely value Grichuk as a platoon hitter, a particularly enterprising club could take a twofold approach to giving him that kind of role.

In addition to lefties, Grichuk could also be used to menace pitchers with good fastballs. His run value against four-seamers and sinkers this year was 2.8 per 100 pitches, which sandwiched him in between Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani.

Prediction: Signs with Miami Marlins for 1 year, $7 million

RHP Jeff Hoffman

Age: 31

2024 Stats: 68 G, 66.1 IP, 48 H (6 HR), 89 K, 16 BB, 2.17 ERA

Why He's Underrated

Jeff Hoffman was an All-Star this past year, so it's not as if he's some kind of mystery man.

All the same, it's worth acknowledging just how terrific the righty has been over the last two seasons. We're talking a 2.28 ERA and a 33.4 strikeout percentage, figures that rank sixth and eighth among right-handed relievers.

Hoffman is this good precisely because he has two pitches that hitters just can't hit. One is an upper-90s fastball against which hitters batted .198 in 2024. He also has a slider that has limited hitters to a .136 average over the last two seasons.

The catch with Hoffman is that he comes with a platoon split. Lefties have a substantially higher OPS (.677) against him over the last two seasons than righties (.454).

However, this is only so damning as a mark of shame. Even if Hoffman's best role is as a righty specialist, that most batters are right-handed means such guys will always have work.

Prediction: Signs with Boston Red Sox for 3 years, $36 million

INF Ha-Seong Kim

Age: 29

2024 Stats: 121 G, 470 PA, 11 HR, 22 SB, .233 AVG, .330 OBP, .370 SLG

Why He's Underrated

In Ha-Seong Kim, we have another not-exactly-unknown quantity. Yet I'll justify his placement on this list by calling attention to this comparison:

• Player A: 15.3 rWAR since 2021
• Player B: 14.6 rWAR since 2021

Player A is Kim. Player B is Willy Adames, who just scored a seven-year, $182 million deal from the San Francisco Giants.

This is, of course, deliberately provocative. At his best, Adames is a 30-homer slugger who plays Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop. At his best, Kim is only capable of the latter. And even this is assuming a strong recovery from right shoulder surgery.

Good shortstop defense is nonetheless a valuable commodity, and it's but one service that Kim provides in the field. He's also a capable defender at third base and second base.

Kim is also an elite bat-to-ball hitter who had a whiff rate in the 92nd percentile in 2024 and, unlike Adames, a consistently above-average baserunner. He thus has all the goods to be a key regular, and at a fraction of what it cost the Giants to sign Adames.

Prediction: Signs with Detroit Tigers for 4 years, $60 million

RHP Nick Pivetta

Age: 31

2024 Stats: 26 GS, 145.2 IP, 128 H (28 HR), 172 K, 36 BB, 4.14 ERA

Why He's Underrated

There's an equally good argument that Nick Pivetta is overrated, including by himself.

The Boston Red Sox made him a qualifying offer in November, which would have guaranteed him a $21.05 million salary for 2025 if he'd accepted. But in a bold move for a pitcher with a career 92 ERA+, he rejected it.

And yet, there is the titillating notion that Pivetta is secretly an elite pitcher.

He's fanned 30 percent of the batters he's faced over the last two seasons, placing him just below AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal among pitchers with at least 280 innings. And according to Stuff+, the quality of Pivetta's pitches in 2024 was the best among all starters.

As he's surrendered 1.5 home runs per nine innings for his career, the long ball has been a consistent problem for Pivetta. But provided a team has a big enough home ballpark, that issue is that much easier to ignore in deference to the good stuff.

Prediction: Signs with San Francisco Giants for 3 years, $45 million

LHP José Quintana

Age: 35

2024 Stats: 31 GS, 170.1 IP, 150 H (22 HR), 135 K, 63 BB, 3.75 ERA

Why He's Underrated

You may have heard that there's a starting pitching crisis in baseball, as none of them can stay healthy or rack up innings anymore.

It makes one wonder how José Quintana keeps getting away with it.

He's topped 150 innings nine times since 2013, making him one of only four pitchers to do so. And while he has had injuries here and there, he's one of seemingly only a half-dozen pitchers who have never had Tommy John surgery.

Continued durability is not exactly guaranteed at his age, but it does soothe the nerves knowing that Quintana isn't out there trying to blow guys away. He's more about throwing 90 mph or so and getting guys to hit the ball on the ground.

It's not flashy, but it's hard to deny at this point that it works. At least well enough to make Quintana a reliable mid-rotation type, and there are few teams that don't need a guy like that.

Prediction: Signs with Washington Nationals for 2 years, $26 million

RHP Kirby Yates

Age: 37

2024 Stats: 61 G, 61.2 IP, 23 H (3 HR), 85 K, 28 BB, 1.17 ERA

Why He's Underrated

It's really hard to hit against Kirby Yates. That's it. That's the bit.

Seriously, though, Yates has allowed only a .140 batting average over the last two seasons. That is the lowest among all pitchers who have logged over 100 innings, and not by a small margin. The next-lowest figure is a .168 average against Josh Hader.

It feels a little unsustainable, given that Yates relies heavily on a 93.1 mph fastball with characteristics that actually grade as below average. And yet, it is one of the most valuable fastballs of the last two seasons.

That's a testament to Yates' deception and how well he spots his fastball just above the zone, where it's hard to lay off and hard to hit. It doesn't hurt Yates that batters also have to guard against his filthy splitter.

Walks and Yates' age bring some uncertainty to this particular profile. All the same, Yates is a very good closer who can likely be had on a one-year deal.

Prediction: Signs with Texas Rangers for 1 year, $9 million

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.