Last year's free-agent pitching class featured multiple top starters.
Gerrit Cole was coming off a dominant season in which he won 20 games and struck out a major league best 326 hitters and had a 185 ERA+ while also leading the American League in ERA (2.50).
Left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu won the ERA title with a 2.32 ERA in 29 starts with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and former World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner was on the open market after a sparkling run with the San Francisco Giants. Meanwhile, right-hander Zack Wheeler was also coming off a pair of nice years with the New York Mets.