Top Landing Spots for Free Agent David Robertson

During the 2024 season, a total of 51 relief pitchers made 65 or more appearances out of their respective team’s bullpen. Of those, a grand total of two of them were 37 years or older. One of them, Daniel Hudson, retired on top after the Dodgers won the World Series. The other, David Robertson, is preparing for his 17th season in the big leagues in 2025.

Amongst all relievers (min. 1 IP) last year that were 37 or older, Robertson led the way in appearances, and innings while finishing just behind teammate Kirby Yates in K/9, HR/9, ERA and FIP.

To this point, Robertson remains unsigned, but that’s not going to last much longer. He’s one of many (many, many…) top-shelf relievers that are still out there on the open market.

At this stage in his career, Robertson is one of the eldest players left in the league. Only Justin Verlander, Jesse Chavez, Charlie Morton, Rich Hill, Yuli Gurriel, Max Scherzer, and Justin Turner are older than he is. Some of them also remain free agents, so this list may get smaller by the time Opening Day rolls around.

Unlike most of the other aging veterans, Robertson still remains at the top of his game. In 68 appearances (his most since 2018), the right-hander posted a 3.00 ERA, 2.65 FIP and 132 ERA+ across 72 innings of work. He’s still striking out over 12 batters per nine innings while remaining stingy when it comes to surrendering hits (6.6 H/9) and home runs (0.6 HR/9).

With a ton of teams remaining in the hunt for relief-pitching help, let’s look around the league and determine which ones could use Robertson the most in 2025.

David Robertson Free Agent Landing Spots

Now that Robertson’s career is winding down, you know he’s only going to consider signing with a team that’s got legitimate championship aspirations. Heck, he only signed with the Rangers last year because they were fresh off of a World Series Championship themselves. We all know how that went.

The saying “you can never have enough pitching” is just as relevant now as it’s ever been. Virtually every single team with hopes of contention could use a Robertson in the back-end of their ‘pen. He may not be a primary closer at this stage, but he excelled in every situation in the book this past season and is capable of closing out games as needed for his new team.

Atlanta Braves

Last year, the Braves had one of the best bullpens in baseball, which is no different than any other year. The club finished second in reliever K/9 and surrendered the least amount of walks in the league while finishing second in FIP and third in ERA.

Raisel Iglesias, Pierce Johnson, Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer are all returning in 2025, but Chavez, Tyler Matzek, Luke Jackson, John Brebbia, and A.J. Minter are all free agents. Atlanta could always re-sign any of these players and Robertson, as they’re currently projected to roster the likes of Daysbel Hernandez and Angel Perdomo to kick off the upcoming season.

The Braves are always going to be contenders, and the 2025 campaign won’t be a different story. They’re stacked from top to bottom, but there’s a spot (or two) in their bullpen. A versatile, experienced, and still solid option like Robertson would work out nicely.

Kansas City Royals

The Royals were the ultimate underdogs in 2024, exceeding all pre-season expectations in a big way. In the end, they finished 86-76 and earned a spot in the postseason. Kansas City fought valiantly, but ultimately fell short to the Yankees in the ALDS.

Now that it’s been 10 years since their epic 2015 World Series triumph, the Royals are undoubtedly going to look to repeat the magic. As we covered recently, building a strong bullpen may just be the key to it all. The Royals already have a solid offensive foundation and an excellent starting rotation, now it’s just time to shore up that ‘pen.

The Royals need strikeouts out of their bullpen. Last year, they struck out just 8.06 batters per nine innings, which was good for 28th in baseball. The majority of their staff is groundball-oriented, which is just fine, but Robertson would be a great fit alongside returning closer Lucas Erceg to boost the strikeout numbers.

New York Mets

After going 89-73 in 2024 just to finish third in the NL East, the Mets went out and pieced together one of the most productive series of moves this offseason. So far, the club has traded for Jose Siri while signing Frankie Montas, Griffin Canning, Clay Holmes, and some guy named Juan Soto.

One spot Steve Cohen, David Stearns and Co. have yet to really address is their bullpen – outside of the single-year pact for Canning. Edwin Diaz is set to return as one of the top closers in the game while Reed Garrett, Jose Butto and Dedniel Nunez all hope to branch off of solid 2024 showings.

However, there’s still room for an external candidate to liven the place up a bit. A ton of relievers from last year’s team are currently sitting on the open market, so there are plenty of roster spots to be filled.

New York Yankees

A team like the Yankees doesn’t feel the need to stop when their roster is looking good. The club is Soto-less now, but they’ve still added Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Max Fried while also acquiring two filthy relievers in Devin Williams and Fernando Cruz.

Per Roster Resource’s projected Opening Day bullpen for the Yankees, every single pitcher outside of Ian Hamilton (9.8) and JT Brubaker (N/A) finished the 2024 season with over 10 strikeouts per nine innings. It’s clear the type of ‘pen the Yankees are looking to assemble for the coming season, so why not bring Robertson back to where it all began?

Everybody’s a sucker for a good sports reunion, and the Bronx is where Robertson initially rose to fame as the Yankees’ oft-used setup man (and eventual closer) from 2008 to 2014 and then again in 2017 and ’18. He’s bounced around a ton in recent years, but ending his storied career where it all began feels perfect.

Toronto Blue Jays

Toronto is going to continue to be featured on “landing spot” lists for relief pitchers until they finally do something. Yimi Garcia, Nick Sandlin, and most recently Jeff Hoffman, have been added to the fold for the coming season, but Jordan Romano is now on the Phillies and there’s very, very little to be excited about in their 2025 bullpen.

Entering the offseason, the Blue Jays had around four spots in their ‘pen that needed an upgrade. Garcia, Sandlin, and Hoffman filled three of them, but there’s easily still two spots left that could use some new blood. With the relief-pitching market still full of talent, it’d make a ton of sense for the Blue Jays to do something before it’s too late.

Hoffman and Garcia should share save opportunities in the coming season, but someone like Robertson could conceivably step in and either take the gig for himself or be a third head of Toronto’s Cerberus of a bullpen.

Last year, the Blue Jays sent out one of the very worst bullpens in the game. There’s simply no way they can do the same in 2025, or they risk losing their fanbase and both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, both of whom are entering their walk years.