SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Right place. Right time. Right arm.

Zack Wheeler has hit the trifecta. Just about every pseudo-contender or better is looking for starting pitching. And Wheeler is positioned to capitalize on that because 1) he has had consecutive healthy, successful seasons for the first time, 2) he does not turn 30 until May and has not even thrown 800 major league innings, 3) he possesses the kind of talent that pretty much every analytic front office believes they can derive more from and 4) as one executive said, “There is an ‘A’ group (Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg) and there are going to be teams that fail to get one of the ‘A’ guys and other teams that just can’t afford it, and (Wheeler) is the best of the ‘B’ group and everyone pretty much will believe they could afford him.”

In an unscientific survey of a half-dozen agents and executives, none said they anticipated Wheeler receiving less than four years at $75 million, and a couple went as high as five years at $100 million.

Nathan Eovaldi, a talented but oft-injured righty like Wheeler, received four years at $68 million last year. He did not have a qualifying offer tied to him as Wheeler does, and Eovaldi performed well for the championship Red Sox, who perhaps emotionally went further than other suitors might. But Eovaldi also never had a year as good as either of Wheeler’s last two.

Patrick Corbin also had talent, injury and inconsistency, but had a superb platform season in 2018 and translated that into a six-year, $140 million pact with the Nationals. Now, he is lefty, a year younger and his platform season was better than any of Wheeler’s years. But what made Corbin attractive — remaining prime years, recent health, a strong platform and an industry belief that his high-end stuff could be refined to even greater impact — is present for Wheeler, too.

It doesn’t take Wheeler up toward Strasburg and Cole. But it appears it could be a separator with others in Group B such as Madison Bumgarner, Dallas Keuchel, Jake Odorizzi and Hyun-jin Ryu.

It also means the Mets almost certainly will not be in play to keep him and will accept the draft pick compensation afforded for putting the qualifying offer on Wheeler. The Mets believe that Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman and Steven Matz give them as strong a rotation top four as any team. Therefore, they could look to invest less in a No. 5 type with upside, someone such as free agents Michael Pineda or Rick Porcello, or even an innings-eater type such as Ivan Nova or Tanner Roark. Or they could consider moving Robert Gsellman or Seth Lugo back to the rotation and concentrating even more strongly on upgrading their bullpen.

The Brewers benefited greatly from a depressed market last year that netted them Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas on one-year deals for $28.25 million total. Grandal, for sure, and Moustakas, probably, are looking at multi-year pacts this offseason, and that very well will force Milwaukee elsewhere.

Milwaukee’s core belief is not to get caught up in chasing need and instead to make the best deals within its budget to either try to add more runs or prevent them better. But after a few years when the Brewers surprised other clubs by not dabbling more seriously in the starting pitching market, the anticipation is that they will use disposable funds from not having Grandal and Moustakas to address their rotation.

The Tigers, as they were in July, are in listening mode on lefty Matt Boyd. But they continue to value him as more of a top-of-the-rotation piece than middle (as much of the industry views him), plus the free agent market is saturated with starting pitchers. So the Tigers anticipate that they will again be in position to market Boyd next July, when the lefty will still be two-plus years from free agency.

In a trade forum in which just about every team is looking to deepen its bullpen, Detroit also is getting plenty of inquiries on Joe Jimenez, who averaged 12.4 strikeouts per nine innings in 2019. But the Tigers, for now, sense teams are trying to low-ball, and Detroit’s plan — unless it can find a low-cost alternative — is to have Jimenez close in 2020.

Mostly, the Tigers hope that sometime during 2020 marks the beginning of their better pitching prospects, namely Matt Manning and Casey Mize, breaking through. The Tigers were disappointed in the steps backward that once-touted Beau Burrows and Kyle Funkhouser took, but became more intrigued and impressed as last year progressed by lefty Tarik Skubal, a ninth-rounder from 2018.

Jon Niese, 33 now and out of the majors since 2016, has not given up on making it back as a reliever. His plan is to showcase himself by pitching for Aguilas in the Dominican Winter League after Thanksgiving.