After spending several years in the Japanese league trying to resurrect his career, left-hander Foster Griffin signed a one-year deal with the Washington Nationals before the 2026 campaign. They bet on him after a dominant run in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) from 2023 to 2025, and he delivered.
Griffin was so good with the Nats that he made the All-Star Game and posted a 3.06 ERA in 22 starts in the Nation’s capital. At that point, the Cleveland Guardians had scouted him for a while and decided to execute a trade with Washington before the deadline.
Griffin wasn’t as good in Cleveland as he was in Washington, but he was still a contributor during the stretch run and posted a 5.19 ERA in nine starts and 43.1 innings. He did save his best for the postseason, though.
In October, Griffin was used as a traditional starter and also as a bulk reliever, giving the Guardians a solid 3.48 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 10.1 innings of work. The 31-year-old, however, is now a free agent after the expiration of his contract.
Some say the Guardians should bring him back, but the market and the league-wide need for starters will likely drive up his price to a point that Cleveland will likely not be comfortable.
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel recently ranked the top 50 free agents in the 2026-27 offseason, and Griffin was 24th. His projected contract? A two-year, $30 million deal.
“Griffin signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal last winter in his return from three years in Japan and was excellent with the Washington Nationals (3.06 ERA, 4.14 xERA), but was less good after a deadline move to the Guardians (5.19 ERA, 4.95 xERA). He’s relatively young and threw 172â…” innings in 2026 with No. 4 starter-level performance, so I think Griffin should land a solid multiyear deal, but there isn’t as much upside as his first-half ERA might suggest,” McDaniel wrote.
Knowing how Cleveland operates, should we bet on them paying Griffin around $30 million for a couple of years of No. 4 starter stats? The answer is, in all likelihood, no. They could probably find pitchers with a similar floor and a higher upside for that money.
Griffin is a steady arm who effectively revived his career in Japan. He turned himself into a viable MLB pitcher and an All-Star. Knowing the situation and his projected cost, he probably won’t be one of the Guardians’ offseason priorities, though.
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