Teams hoping to bolster their pitching rotation this winter will have a final look at most of their free-agent options this week, and all are hoping for the kind of success the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates had last off-season.

Ervin Santana, Matt Garza, Tim Lincecum and Ricky Nolasco are among the players available, but based on last winter’s signings, there are really only two choices for luring a productive free-agent starter from another team: pay exorbitant prices for a premium talent or pay almost nothing and hope for a turnaround. Most other deals, at least last off-season, disappointed: Edwin Jackson and Joe Blanton, Dan Haren and Brandon McCarthy, Joe Saunders and Shaun Marcum, to name a few.

At the top of the salary scale, the Dodgers lavished six years and $147 million on Zack Greinke, who is 15-3 with a 2.75 earned run average for the National League West champions. At the bottom, the Pirates pulled off the steal of the off-season, snagging Francisco Liriano for a guarantee of just $1 million.

Liriano leads the Pirates in wins, going 16-7 with an E.R.A. of 2.88, and the team is poised for its first winning season since 1992 and, almost certainly, a berth in the playoffs. Even after being named to the All-Star team in July, Jeff Locke, a fellow Pirates left-hander, called Liriano the most important part of the team’s renaissance.