In 2023, Shohei Ohtani delivered a tremendous campaign both at the plate and on the mound to win the second of three career MVP Awards. The next offseason, he was signed by the Dodgers to a then-record 10-year, $700 million contract. In 2024, Juan Soto became the latest superstar with a walk year for the ages before signing a record-breaking 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets.

Not everyone can be like Ohtani or Soto -- in fact, in many ways those two are in a league of their own. But there are plenty of stars who will be heading into their contract walk years in 2025, and they’ll be looking to put up big numbers heading into free agency. Here’s a look at 12 notable players who will look to cash in next offseason following a big walk year performance:

Luis Arraez, Padres
Arraez is coming off a season in which he became the first player in MLB history to win batting titles with three different teams (the Twins, Marlins and Padres), doing so in three consecutive years. His three batting championships have him tied with Jose Altuve for the most among active players, and he’s now getting into some pretty impressive company -- that’s as many as Pete Rose, Carl Yastrzemski and George Brett won in their entire careers.

As Arraez chases his fourth straight batting title in 2025, he’ll also be looking to make his unique skill set at the plate even more attractive before hitting the free-agent market.

Bo Bichette, Blue Jays
Bichette has a lot of motivation to reclaim the form that made him the American League’s hit leader from 2021-23 (555). Last season, Bichette struggled through a spate of injuries and underperformance at the plate, appearing in 81 games and producing a .225/.277/.322 slash line. As he heads into the ’25 season, he’ll be striving to prove he can still be the hitter he was earlier in his career while at the same time bolstering his potential free agent stock.

Dylan Cease, Padres
Following a subpar 2023 campaign with the White Sox, Cease bounced back nicely with a strong showing in his first season with the Padres in ’24. In his final season in Chicago, the right-hander posted a 4.58 ERA over 177 innings. But this past season with San Diego, he pitched to a 3.47 ERA over 189 1/3 innings and finished fourth in National League Cy Young Award voting. His strikeout rate was up to 29.4% and his walk rate was a career-low 8.5%. He also threw the second no-hitter in Padres history.

Cease hopes that what comes next will be his best season since he finished runner-up in AL Cy Young Award voting in ’22. That would provide a big boost to an already strong free agency case next offseason.

Zac Gallen, D-backs
It’s not that Gallen hasn’t been good the past couple of seasons -- he has a 3.54 ERA (122 ERA+) over that span -- it’s that he hasn’t been as good as he’s shown he can be. In 2022, the right-hander posted a 2.54 ERA over 184 innings while leading the NL with a 0.91 WHIP and leading the Majors with a 5.9 hits-per-nine-innings ratio.

Gallen was sidelined for some time with a right hamstring strain in 2024, and he’ll look to not only have a healthy ’25 campaign, but one that is more reminiscent of that fantastic ’22 performance in the final year of his current contract.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays
Guerrero’s monster 2021 season, in which he finished runner-up in AL MVP voting to Ohtani, had us wondering just how prodigious the years ahead would be for the slugging first baseman. But after belting an MLB-leading 48 homers with a 1.002 OPS in ’21, he saw his offensive production -- particularly in the power department -- steadily decline over the next two seasons. He slugged .480 with 32 homers in ’22, and .444 with 26 homers in ’23.

Guerrero had a much better season in 2024, hitting .323/.396/.544 with 30 homers. That’s a very good sign for a player who will be 26 years old when he’s scheduled to hit free agency. That relative youth, along with a ’25 campaign that looks more like what he did in ’21, could land him a huge deal next offseason.

Ryan Helsley, Cardinals
Helsley has become one of the game’s elite closers and is coming off a season in which he posted a 2.04 ERA with a career-high 49 saves for the Cardinals. He picked up his second All-Star selection in three years, a period over which he had a 1.83 ERA and 82 saves. The flamethrowing right-hander reaches triple digits with his fastball and has a devastating slider that was the fourth best in the game by run value (+13), behind only Chris Sale, Cease and Ronel Blanco. If Helsley continues on the trajectory he’s currently on, he could have a tremendous walk year.

Michael King, Padres
One of the many pieces of the package the Padres received in exchange for Juan Soto when they traded him to the Yankees last offseason, King demonstrated why so many have been so high on him. The 29-year-old right-hander was converted into a full-time starter and delivered a 2.95 ERA over 173 2/3 innings last season. He was especially good down the stretch as the Padres pursued a postseason berth, posting a 2.11 ERA in 11 second-half starts, including a 1.57 ERA in September.

The hard-hit rate against King in 2024 was just 30.3%, ranking him in the 97th percentile among qualifying pitchers. He has an excellent changeup that generated a 36.2% whiff rate last season as part of a secondary arsenal that also features a slider and a sweeper. King will look to carry that second-half momentum from last season into the next, and if he does, he could turn in a great walk year in ’25.

J.T. Realmuto, Phillies
For several years, Realmuto was the gold standard for MLB catchers -- a backstop who could hit, hit with power, throw and even run well for the position. While his numbers have been solid over the past two seasons, he hasn’t been as productive, particularly at the plate. From 2017-22, Realmuto posted an .802 OPS with 124 home runs. From 2023-24, he hit .258/.315/.442 with 34 homers. Behind the plate, he led the Majors with a 44.1% caught-stealing rate in ’22, but since then, he’s caught 26.5% of base stealers.

Realmuto will surely look to recapture the form he had earlier in his career as he heads toward free agency for the first time -- after the Marlins traded him to the Phillies prior to the 2019 season, Philadelphia signed him to a five-year, $115.5 million extension.

Kyle Schwarber, Phillies
Schwarber remains one of the game’s best power hitters heading into his age-32 season in 2025. Though he hit just .197 and struck out a Major League-high 215 times in ’23, the hulking slugger smashed 47 homers and walked in 17.5% of his plate appearances. He followed that up with a better season in ’24, raising his average over 50 points to .248 while leading the NL with 106 walks to go along with 38 homers.

Schwarber is a streaky hitter who, when going good, can be impossible to pitch to (especially in June). He’ll look to have more hot streaks than cold ones in his walk year with Philadelphia.

Kyle Tucker, Cubs
Tucker will suit up for a team other than the Astros for the first time in his career in 2025, and he hopes his walk year with the Cubs is a very productive one. There’s no reason to think it won’t be -- since he became a full-time player in 2020, the slugging right fielder has an .883 OPS with 121 home runs and 88 steals. Defensively, no one had more defensive runs saved in right field from 2020-24 than Tucker’s 35.

If Tucker has another strong season with the Cubs in 2025, he’ll be one of the most coveted free agents on next year’s market, assuming he doesn’t sign an extension to stay on the North Side of Chicago.

Framber Valdez, Astros
Outside of a hiccup during his 2023 campaign, Valdez has been one of the most consistently excellent starting pitchers in baseball over the past four seasons -- in that span, he had a 3.08 ERA and 1.15 WHIP for Houston. The veteran left-hander has extensive postseason experience, including a fantastic run in 2022, when he helped the Astros win the World Series by posting a 1.44 ERA over four playoff starts.

Valdez, who turned 31 last month, is a ground ball pitcher who misses barrels. Last season, his ground ball rate was 61.7%, and he has a career 63.1% ground ball rate. With a sinker and curveball that rank among the game’s best, all he needs to do is continue what he’s been doing to have a walk year that puts him in a great position heading into free agency.

Devin Williams, Yankees
Williams was recently traded from the Brewers to the Yankees, setting up a lights-out combination at the back of New York’s bullpen, which already features Luke Weaver. Williams, who is known for his “airbender” changeup that has been the key weapon in his arsenal, pitched to a 1.25 ERA in an injury-limited 2024 campaign.

Williams, the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year and a two-time All-Star, owns a career 1.83 ERA with an incredible 39.4% strikeout rate. Assuming the back injury that kept him sidelined last season doesn’t pose problems in ’25, Williams stands to become the premier closer on next year’s free agent market.