Top Landing Spots for Free Agent Tanner Scott

It took a few years for him to find his footing in the big leagues, but Tanner Scott is here to stay. Scott, 30, is one of the game’s top left-handed relievers and is currently available on the open market.

During this past season, Scott split his time between the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres as he swapped coasts at the trade deadline. Pre-trade, he sported a 1.18 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 45.2 innings that easily earned him the first All-Star Game selection of his eight-year career.

After the trade, he continued to dominate. While his ERA got “worse” to the tune of a 2.73 mark, his FIP lowered from 3.25 to 2.33 and he lowered his walk rates while raising his strikeout rates at the same time. All told, he posted a sparkling 1.75 ERA and 2.92 FIP across 72 games, earning 22 saves along the way.

In the past three seasons, Scott has now struck out 90, 104 and 84 batters, which is Josh Hader level. Scott has always been a durable and reliable arm, making 50+ relief appearances five times in eight years and he is now set up to be paid for it.

In an offseason where Jeff Hoffman, Carlos Estevez, Blake Treinen and Kirby Yates all are available alongside Scott, the latter is easily the best-available southpaw and would be a great fit on virtually any club in the league that needs another left-hander. All of the other high-leverage arms throw from the right side, so Scott is in a league of his own.

Let’s dive in to some of Scott’s top projected landing spots and determine which teams would be the best fit.

Top Five Landing Spots for Tanner Scott

Arizona Diamondbacks

There’s no club in the game that wouldn’t benefit from adding Scott to the back end of their bullpen, let’s get that out of the way right off the bat.

The Diamondbacks are right in the middle of their current contention window and are fresh off of an 89-win campaign in 2024 and a World Series appearance in 2023. On offense, Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte and veterans Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Eugenio Suarez lead the way, but the pitching staff – especially the bullpen – leaves much to be desired.

Rumor has it the Diamondbacks are open to trading from their starting pitching depth to fill out needs around their roster, and the bullpen is certainly one of them. This past year, left-handed Dbacks relievers had the third-highest ERA in baseball at 4.92 and they were also 18th in strikeout rate.

Arizona needs strikeouts, they need left-handed help and they need a proven closer. Scott just so happens to check all three of those boxes, a sentiment ESPN’s David Schoenfield agrees with. He’d join Justin Martinez, Kevin Ginkel and fellow left-hander A.J. Puk to form one of the more deadly back-end quartets in the league. This could be enough to finally push these Dbacks over the hump.

Chicago Cubs

The Cubs are another team that was in the thick of things this past season but came up just short in the playoff hunt. They already have a promising back-end consisting of Porter Hodge, Nate Pearson and Tyson Miller, but all three of them are right-handed pitchers.

In fact, the only lefty projected to make the Cubs’ Opening Day roster is Rob Zastryzny, who will be 33 in March and has never thrown over 20.2 innings at the big-league level.

In nearly every major category this past year, Cubs relievers were right in the middle of the pack. They didn’t strike out a ton of batters, they were “just okay” in the run prevention department and they also struggled with walks. When filtering to only left-handed relievers, they were 25th in both walk rate and FIP. Scott would help boost these numbers.

The Cubs have been trying to chase after that 2016 magic for years now. Their offense has a ton of potential but there’s room for improvements on the pitching staff. With Matthew Boyd already having been signed to a deal that’ll help them shore up their starting-five, it’s time to turn the attention to a shutdown lefty reliever and there’s a great one up for grabs right now.

New York Yankees

With the Yankees, Scott has the makings of Andrew Miller 2.0. Miller posted a 1.77 ERA through 104 outings as a Yankee, striking out nearly 15 batters per nine innings and being one of the most dominant relief pitchers in the game. Scott’s close to there already, so his addition would bring back a ton of memories for followers of the Yankees.

Coming off of a year in which they came up just short in the World Series, the Yankees are looking to make either one Juan Soto-sized splash, or multiple splashes that are just below the “Soto tier.” As is the case in every other winter, they’ve got the cash and track record of putting winning clubs out on the field to lure basically any player they want on the open market.

Now that they’ve lost Clay Holmes to the other New York team, the Yankees need to snag another reliever to pair with Luke Weaver in the back end of their ‘pen. Weaver looked great as the club’s closer in the playoffs, but Scott is much more of a “sure thing” moving forward. Having him close out games with Weaver being a bridge piece that’s capable of going multiple innings sounds like a dream.

As of right now, Nestor Cortes seems to be destined for a long-relief role at the start of next year, but there’s no other left-handed relief pitchers on the 40-man roster. There’s an obvious need for Scott and the truth of the matter is that the Yankees would have little to no issue landing him if they aggressively pursued him.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers went from World Series Champs to third-place team with a sub-.500 record within a year. There are few teams with more pressure on their shoulders heading into the Winter Meetings, because it’s completely unacceptable to go from the highest of highs to … this, within such a small amount of time.

A look at their projected Opening Day bullpen will make any baseball fan cringe. At this moment, former Pirates starter Roansy Contreras is penciled in as the Rangers’ closer with Daniel Robert, a 30-year-old righty who threw 5.2 innings in 2024, as the top set-up option. Jake Latz, a decent southpaw reliever, is arguably the only absolute lock to even be a part of their ‘pen come the start of next season.

During the 2024 season, the Rangers finished 26th in ERA from left-handed relief pitchers and were dead last in FIP at 5.21. Their -0.8 fWAR from that bunch ranked 29th so adding Scott, whose 4.9 fWAR since 2022 is 1.3 wins above replacement above the second-best LHP in that time, makes all the sense in the world.

Seeing as how the Rangers believe they can contend in the upcoming season, Scott should only be a small part of their total offseason overhaul, but bringing him aboard on a multi-year contract is a damned good place to start.

Toronto Blue Jays

The Rangers’ 2025 bullpen doesn’t look promising right now, but there’s no team in baseball that needs, well, a complete roster overhaul more than the Blue Jays. Their top needs are on offense and both the starting rotation and bullpen, which is going to make their quest for contention in the upcoming season more than a little bit difficult.

The Blue Jays non-tendered Jordan Romano and lost Genesis Cabrera via free agency to the Mets. That leaves Chad Green and Erik Swanson as their current eighth- and ninth-inning guys and Brendon Little as their only left-handed reliever. This is a unit that could realistically use three or even four new faces in it to kick off next season, but Scott would be an excellent place to start.

During the 2024 campaign, Blue Jays relievers as a whole finished 29th in baseball with a 4.82 ERA, 30th in FIP at 4.84 and dead last in fWAR (-2.5) by a very wide margin. Their left-handed relievers were only good for 19th in ERA, 29th in FIP and dead last in fWAR. This is in large part due to the struggling Tim Mayza and Cabrera’s concerning under-the-hood metrics, but there’s a serious need for some new blood regardless.