The saying has always been “pitching wins championships.”
Obviously, it takes a little more than just pitching to make the postseason and progress through the playoffs and into the World Series, but pitching is arguably the most important part of the roster to focus offseason attention for most teams.
Although subject to slumps, just like their position player counterparts, pitching can be tailored to fit a team’s strengths.
Certain teams may fair better with fly-ball pitchers. Some teams will need to utilize ground-ball pitchers. All teams benefit from strikeout pitchers.
Then there’s whether the team lacks depth in the starting rotation, middle innings, specialty pitchers, setup men and closers.
The point of this particular slideshow is to identify the pitching roster need of each team and speculate which free-agent pitcher the team is most likely to target this offseason.