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The deterrents are not working.

They hardly make anyone think twice about being penalized. The possibility of signing a superstar easily trumps the tax and draft-pick penalties to sign elite foreign talent.

This is the current Major League Baseball entry system for players born outside of the United States, Canada or other U.S. territories. Have citizenship anywhere besides those locations, and the market opens up for a player as wide as his talent dictates.

Cuban infielder Yoan Moncada experienced this over the winter, finally capitalizing last week when the Boston Red Sox agreed to pay him $31.5 million, plus a 100 percent tax paid to MLB because the Red Sox spent over their allotted pool. That move instantly made Moncada the team’s top prospect as a 19-year-old infielder.

Moncada’s contract sparked renewed criticism of the system. Columns were written. Questions were raised. Rebuttals followed. Outrage spewed. Tweets were posted, like this one from Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Drew Smyly:

It’s not right that a Cuban 19yr old gets paid 30m and the best 19yr old in the entire USA gets prob 1/6th of … http://t.co/7aAZCwgm2t

— Drew Smyly (@SmylyD) February 23, 2015

Smyly’s thoughts were echoed across the Internet. But he also made sure to note he was not blasting Moncada or the deal he signed—only the system MLB runs and that the MLB Players Union agreed to.

For the record, I’m not criticizing Moncadas deal. I’m all for any player making as much as he can. I only … http://t.co/5dso1gLlid

— Drew Smyly (@SmylyD) February 24, 2015

First-year MLB commissioner Rob Manfred agrees the system must be revamped, and that may lead to an international draft or some revised form of the current rules when the next collective bargaining agreement is negotiated. During spring training media day last week, Manfred spoke about the efforts being done to fix to improve the current system, via Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today:

We thought we put a set of deterrents in the international signing pool that would be effective. So far, I will say they have not been quite as effective as we hoped for. But remember, the piece that has not yet kicked in is the inability to sign in the following years, so we’ll have to see how that piece of the deterrent plays out before we make a full judgment.

But even when big-money teams like the Red Sox, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels feel the effects of their spending during the next international signing period, which starts July 2, it is not likely to keep them from doing it again. Manfred knows this, and so do other MLB executives.

That is why there will likely be a change during the next CBA after the current one expires in 2016.

“I don’t think the financial penalties give everybody a fair chance,” Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin told Ortiz. The Brewers were part of the Moncada bidding. “They don’t deter clubs from getting involved. That 100 percent penalty [for every dollar above the assigned pool] doesn’t seem to scare off a lot of teams.”

However the system is altered, it must account for older and veteran foreign players, as it does now. Under current rules, any international player at least 23 years old and with at least five years played in a professional league recognized by the commissioner’s office does not count against the bonus pool.

That part of the system must remain intact.

If Yu Darvish or Masahiro Tanaka or Hyun-Jin Ryu were subject to the same draft rules as domestic amateurs, or put into an international draft pool, why would they ever come to the United States? If professional international stars did have to go through that process, they would likely have to take pay cuts.

Latin American players would not face the same situations as Asian counterparts because their leagues do not pay nearly what they might make as minor leaguers.

But open-market signing bonuses are a different story, as Moncada’s deal signaled. Of course, that price would go down if American, Canadian and Puerto Rican players were also allowed free agency and not forced into the amateur draft because supply could match demand.

But as it stands, there is a limited supply of players of Moncada’s ilk in the current market, and major league teams set his value between $25-31.5 million by the end of bidding.

“I would have loved to be a free agent in college and made the best deal I could,” Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. told Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe. “Maybe I should have moved out of the country. If everybody was a free agent, you’d get what your real value is. But that’s never going to happen.”

No one is arguing that an international draft would not help competitive balance throughout the system. But more than an issue of competitive balance, this is about cost control and cost certainty for owners.

For instance, one of the highest bonuses ever given to a Latin American player, not counting bonuses for Cubans, came from the low-budget Oakland A’s when they signed Dominican pitcher Michael Ynoa for a $4.25 million bonus. And in two of the last three international signing periods, the frugal Rays went over their allotted bonus pools by 39 percent in 2012-13 ($4.03 million) and 35 percent (approximately $4.025 million) during this current period.

Neither of those teams is on the same financial level as the Red Sox or Yankees. They are routinely on the bottom of the annual payroll rankings, but they are still willing to spend big on the international market, and in the Rays’ case, pay expensive penalties. So competitive balance is not necessarily the issue here.

This is more about owners no longer wanting to watch bids for international players skyrocket north of $60 million with the penalty as they did for Moncada, whose bonus was the largest ever given to an international free agent.

By way of the current MLB amateur draft, the largest signing bonus ever given was $8 million by the Pittsburgh Pirates for Gerrit Cole in 2011. The following year, MLB instituted a stricter bonus-pool structure. Since then, the highest bonus is $6.7 million by the Chicago Cubs to Kris Bryant, a player who might command more than Moncada if he were allowed the same free-agent opportunity.

There are a myriad of other variables that must be considered when adjusting how the international market runs.

Latin American players are often their family’s only source of income, they must deal with street agents who push PEDs and the falsifying of birth certificates. And potential penalties that come with getting caught—the player, not the street agent, will be punished—are typically issues not associated with American or Canadian prospects.

Another thing to consider: Bonuses for players like Ynoa and Moncada are rare. And if an international Latin player is not signed by 20 or 21, the age when American college players can still garner massive bonuses, he is likely to remain unsigned because he is deemed too old to be an elite prospect. If an international draft is put into place, Manfred and his people must consider this issue and possibly stop teams from signing international free agents as young as 16. 

Also, the million-dollar bonus for a Latin player—we focus on Latin America because that is where the bulk of the international market is—is a rarity. Americans are so aware of them only because they are newsworthy when they happen.

So if an international draft is implemented, it should go farther in gaining equal pay for Latin players as compared to their American counterparts. Not the other way around.

And as for Cubans like Moncada or Rusney Castillo or Yasiel Puig or Jose Abreu, by escaping their communist island, they risk their freedom and lives. Again, this is something players coming through the amateur draft cannot relate to for the most part. And as things stand, players who flee the island are not immediately granted inclusion into the free-agent system and may not be immediately eligible for a future draft if current rules are not altered in the next CBA.

“Good for [Moncada],” Red Sox prospect Deven Marrero told Abraham. Marrero was a fist-round pick in 2012 and received a $2.05 million signing bonus, which hardly gets a headline stateside but would be a major payday for a Dominican player. “I know guys from Cuba have to go through a lot to get to play baseball here. I have respect for them because they have to work a lot harder than we do to get to the major leagues.

“To get to this country, to escape, they risk their lives sometimes. That money is well-deserved, in my mind.”

A change in the current system is a good thing, but not for the reasons the Moncada deal “exposes.”

What it brings to light is how cheap it is for teams to shop on the international market, with rare exceptions such as Moncada. For instance, the Yankees signed 28 international free agents during this period, spending a total of about $15.5 million, according to Baseball Prospectus.

A team that drafts in the top 10 of the current amateur draft and half will likely use around half of that amount on a single player. This is partly why teams are willing to pay double for elite international talent when it hits the market late, like Moncada.

Yoan Moncada’s biggest impact might not be on the field but rather what he does for push for international draft. Possible tipping point

— Jorge Arangure (@jorgearangure) February 23, 2015

Again, the Moncada deal shows why teams are willing to take on tax penalties, but it does not expose an unfair advantage the Cuban might have over someone like Bryant. It ought to show the huge gap in overall pay between players drafted in the current system and the majority of those signed as international free agents.

When the system changes in 2016, it might keep players like Moncada from snatching a $30 million bonus, but that is only good if across-the-board bonuses match what current draftees earn.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

This is not how things are supposed to go for the New York Yankees.

When it comes to desiring a commodity and having a willingness to spend for it, the Yankees are not supposed to swing and miss. And while the occasional whiff has happened under the Steinbrenner family reign, missing out on the prize they covet, for a myriad of reasons, is becoming more common.

The latest example: Cuban prospect Yoan Moncada.

The Yankees wanted him. Badly. They worked him out repeatedly. They were willing to pay a huge tax penalty to sign the 19-year-old infielder. So they made their best offer—$25 million plus a 100 percent tax, bringing the grand total cost for Moncada to $50 million.

Then, the Boston Red Sox topped that last week, spending $63 million total—the Red Sox are also subject to the 100 percent tax during this international signing period—to land Moncada. He immediately became the organization’s top prospect and No. 10 overall by Baseball America’s ratings.

And once again, the Yankees missed on a player because they showed some financial restraint.

“We made a heck of an offer and it wasn’t good enough,” owner Hal Steinbrenner told the New York Post’s George A. King III.

Said general manager Brian Cashman (via King): “It’s part of the process and we gave them our final and best [offer]. Nobody disagrees with the ability. It comes down to how much money you want to commit. We put our best foot forward with a significant offer, but it fell short.”

At the end of the bidding, the Yankees did not want to commit upward of $60 million on a prospect when they believed they could get a more proven player for a similar price, possibly one also from Cuba.

There was a feeling from some that Moncada wanted to be a Yankee, team viewed it as too risky to spend a total of $60M-$70M for a prospect

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) February 23, 2015

Yanks offered $25M, which is $50M with tax, probably would’ve gone a bit higher, but Sox valued Moncada more

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) February 23, 2015

Yanks feeling was they can buy a proven MLBer for $60M or $70M

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) February 23, 2015

This offseason the Yankees exercised the same kind of caution by not dipping into the free-agent pool. They left alone Max Scherzer, Hanley Ramirez, Jon Lester, James Shields and most of the rest, inking only Andrew Miller and re-signing Chase Headley as significant contributors.

In the recent past, despite spending $471 million in the 2013-14 offseason after missing the playoffs, the Yankees have not landed all their desired targets.

In 2010, it was Cliff Lee, who took two less years and less guaranteed money to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies. And in 2012, the Yankees missed on catcher Russell Martin along with other lower-tier free agents.

Before that 2012 offseason, the Yankees went after another Cuban prospect with a bid in the $25 million range. But Jorge Soler eventually signed with the Chicago Cubs for nine years and $30 million. 

These players choosing teams other than the Yankees says less about the Yankees than it does about the state of the game and how other teams—the Red Sox, Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers to name a few—are now able to play on the same financial level. Also, front offices across baseball are smarter, better prepared and better informed than even just 10 years ago.

Now, the Yankees have to set they sights further down the free-agent road, especially if relations between the United States and Cuba soften.

We all know the Yankees are in win-now mode at all times. They do not rebuild. They reload. Or at least they attempt to, and that is a big part of the reason their farm system has not bared any real fruit in several years—relievers David Robertson and Dellin Betances aside.

To change that trend, the Yankees went nuts on the international market during this current period. They signed 10 of Baseball America’s top 30 international prospects and four of the top 10. To do so, the Yankees completely ignored their $2.2 million international spending limit in signing a total of 28 players, spending an estimated $15.5 million.

Because they obliterated their bonus pool, they Yankees are not allowed to offer a bonus of more than $300,000 to any international player for the next two signing periods. This current signing period ends June 15.

That takes the team out of the running for 18-year-old Cuban pitcher Yadier Alvarez, arguably the best pitching prospect coming out of Cuba right now, because the right-hander will not be eligible to sign until July 2, when the Yankees will already have penalties imposed.

Cuban RHP Yadier Alvarez had a showcase. Not eligible to sign until 7/2. Expect residency & to start F/A process soon pic.twitter.com/B8iUESGaqP

— Jesse Sanchez (@JesseSanchezMLB) February 26, 2015

It also takes the Yankees out of the running for the 2013-14 Serie Nacional rookie of the year, Vladimir Gutierrez, because he also cannot sign until July 2.

Looking elsewhere on the international market, 29-year-old second baseman (30 in April) Hector Olivera fits a need for the Yankees. Helping this cause is that Olivera is older than 23 and has played at least five seasons in a professional league recognized by MLB, Cuba’s Serie Nacional. That means Olivera will not count against a team’s international bonus pool and will come without the 100 percent tax for the Yankees.

Despite being an older player, Olivera impressed at a showcase last month, and he is expected to be a major league player once he does sign with a team. Salary estimates have gone as high as $70 million.

OK, so it’s five teams over $70M on Hector Olivera. But I still wish the Brothers Gourriel could play in The States

— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) February 17, 2015

Considering how the Yankees spent wildly during this current international period, they aren’t in desperate need to make a move here. Moncada would have been a huge get, but because they missed on him, they do not need to make up for it by spending foolishly elsewhere, although Olivera could make plenty of sense since they won’t be taxed and he can contribute immediately.

The Yankees no longer play the free-spending game alone. Others have seats at the table, and Moncada’s signing is just the latest proof. Still, Moncada is not their only option, and the Yankees can still find a way to get involved in the international market, which we have already seen them do during this current signing period.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Here we are, right back where we started.

As March approaches and actual games are on the horizon, the time to break down position battles is upon us. As far as Cactus and Grapefruit League games go, they might not count toward reaching October, but for players involved in these toss-ups, they are ever meaningful. 

But instead of breaking down all the position battles, or the ones for each team, let’s make this more relevant. Which fights matter? Which ones carry the most weight for their team’s eventual success? Where are the battles with the most at stake?

That typically means the battles that are happening within clubs with lofty expectations. While every franchise has some kind of position uncertainty hovering over their spring camp, these are the five most important.

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This isn’t our first rebuilding rodeo.

The baseball-loving world has been in this exact position heading into spring training many times before, anticipating a team with a massive overhaul only to watch said team fizzle mightily during the season. The stench of those failures still wafts in the air, and the 2015 San Diego Padres are trying to avoid it sticking to them. 

Padres general manager A.J. Preller took his position on Aug. 5 last year, and soon after the regular season ended and the hot stove started, Preller went to work on the game’s latest rebuild/reload/remake. The Padres are now a hot ticket in San Diego—they’ve already seen a 63 percent increase from secondary ticket sales at this time last year, according to Jeff Sanders of U-T San Diego—and the excitement is understandable.

Preller has added both legitimate and potential superstars to the roster, giving the Padres a realistic chance of earning their first playoff berth since 2008 in the tough National League West…on paper, at least.

“You can say we gambled on [Preller],” Padres managing owner Ron Fowler told U-T San Diego’s Nick Canepa. “We expected a lot of energy, a lot of excitement, and we got it—quicker than we thought.”

The challenge for this Padres revamp is finding different results than the failures we’ve seen in the recent past in Miami, Toronto and New York.

Rebuilds that did not rely on waiting for draft picks to develop into young superstars have been successful lately. The Boston Red Sox in 2013 are the most recent success story, as that project culminated in a World Series title. The 2009 New York Yankees won a title after adding Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Nick Swisher during the previous offseason, and the 1997 Florida Marlins also emptied the wallet in the offseason to end up with a ring.

But the failures are just as documented and certainly more salacious.

The 2012 Miami Marlins hired a charismatic and controversial manager in Ozzie Guillen, signed free agents Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell and traded for Carlos Zambrano. That experiment lasted all of three months before the club started trading off pieces during its first season in a new state-of-the-art stadium. The Marlins lost 93 games that year, fired Guillen and held a fire sale much the same way they did after winning the World Series in 1997.

The 2012 dismantling in Miami directly led to another quick rebuild, this time for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Marlins finished their teardown in October of 2012 when they traded Reyes, Buehrle, Josh Johnson, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio to the Jays. That deal, paired with the Jays’ blockbuster trade for reigning National League Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey, brought expectations in Toronto to an all-time high.

In 2013, the Blue Jays lost 88 games and finished in last place in the American League East. The Dickey trade, which cost Toronto catcher Travis d’Arnaud and pitcher Noah Syndergaard, now looks like a big loss.

The following offseason, the Yankees were livid at missing the playoffs and the Red Sox winning it all. Their 2013-14 offseason was an epic one, as they were intent on reloading their roster. The team spent $471 million on new additions, including Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran. The result was one fewer win than the season before and another missed October.

So how will the Padres be any different this summer?

For one, Preller completed this franchise face-lift by adding players like Matt Kemp, James Shields, Justin Upton, Wil Myers and Derek Norris, yet still managed to keep the team’s payroll at around $100 million, according to Sanders. That total cost is barely up from the team’s $90.6 million payroll last season, when it won 77 games.

Preller also added Shields and low-risk, high-reward guys like Brandon Morrow and Johnson to an already strong rotation. He made his moves without dismantling last year’s rotation or depleting the farm system.

It’s pretty obvious that A.J. Preller can do whatever he wants. He’ll probably show up to #PadresFanFest like this. pic.twitter.com/WBCSUOHcjS

— Friar Fever (@FriarFever) February 13, 2015

Before a pitch is thrown this season, we can say the Padres have one of the best pitching staffs in the majors after adding to one that was already elite both in the rotation and in the bullpen. We couldn’t say the same thing about the Marlins, Blue Jays and Yankees of recent rebuilds.

That foundation can carry the Padres even if the offensive acquisitions don’t live up to the hype and if the defense fulfills its low expectations.

However, some still don’t see this latest experimental rebuild working. respected baseball writer Joel Sherman of the New York Post is one of these voices.

But something else must be remembered: The Padres did not blow up a competitive team, and none of the newcomers will oust incumbents who should be starting. Even if you don’t like everything Preller has done, you have to admit the Padres are better at every outfield position or in the rotation from where they were at the end of last season.

The Padres also did not necessarily set out to create this massive overhaul when the season ended. Opportunities presented themselves—Shields with his dwindling market and price tag would be one example—and Preller struck.

“Sitting there with [manager Bud Black] and the staff after the season, if you asked if we thought if there would be this kind of volume and activity, that wouldn’t have been the case,” Preller told Canepa. “But one thing led to the next.”

Now, the Padres’ offseason has led to wildly high expectations for this summer and fall. The way it unfolded, we should not be surprised if this club lives up to them.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Kris Bryant’s time is now.

There is nothing left for him to prove in the minor leagues, and the Chicago Cubs have made a clear and definitive turn toward competitiveness. Both those reasons ought to point to the 23-year-old uber-prospect being on the team’s Opening Day roster.

Bryant is the Cubs’ best possible option to play third base. So as long as he is physically able when spring training concludes, the Cubs do not have any valid reasons to leave Bryant behind in the minors.

Off to AZ! Time to go to work!!

— Kris Bryant (@KrisBryant_23) February 15, 2015

Ever since the Cubs drafted Bryant second overall in 2013, he has done nothing to disappoint. His progression through every class of the minors culminated with an incredible .325/.438/.661 slash line, a 1.098 OPS, 43 home runs and 110 RBIs between Double-A and Triple-A in 2014. He was awarded Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year award and enters spring training as the MLB.com No. 2 prospect, Baseball Prospectus’ No. 5 prospect and will undoubtedly be a top-five prospect when Baseball America releases its rankings Thursday. (He was eighth last year.) 

Because the Cubs traded last year’s third baseman, Luis Valbuena, and because Mike Olt had the majors’ worst batting average (.160) and highest strikeout rate (38.8 percent) of players with at least 250 plate appearances, there is need at the hot corner.

That means Bryant will get a good portion of the playing time during the Cactus League. Unfortunately, that does not mean he has a clear path to the majors on Opening Day.

The Cubs organization and the game’s economics could be his roadblocks.

If Bryant does not spend more than 171 days in the majors this season, his service clock is backed up, and he cannot become a free agent until 2021. If he exceeds that cap, he can hit free agency in 2020. The Cubs’ season is 183 days long, so in order to keep him under the 171-day threshold, the team has to keep Bryant in the minors for the first two weeks of the season.

That extra year of control is huge for the Cubs, especially if Bryant becomes the kind of elite hitter in the majors that he has been in the minors. The Cubs swear that any decision on Bryant’s roster situation will be strictly related to baseball, but it is hard to ignore that extra year of control.

“All those issues on who makes the club and when to call a player up, you have to balance a number of factors,” Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein said at the Cubs Convention a month ago (via Tony Andracki of CSNChicago.com). “But they’re all baseball-driven factors: Kris’ development, who else we have to play a certain position, roster implications. 

“We made that decision last year with Javy Baez. If we were just looking to protect the player’s service clock, we wouldn’t have called up Javy or Jorge Soler. It was the right time for their development and it was the right time for the team.

“When it’s the right time for Kris’ development, and the right time for the team, he’ll be on the roster.”

Seeing as how Bryant has annihilated the highest level of the minor leagues and the Cubs are suddenly in win-now mode, the time appears to be right for everybody involved even with Bryant’s service time dilemma a clear and present concern. But teams with playoff aspirations, such as the revamped Cubs, should not hold back from putting out their best possible lineup because of player control issues.

That is why spring training should be Bryant’s stage to shine. The team does not have a better option than him at third base, and in order to find out how he handles big league pitching, even in exhibitions when pitchers aren’t throwing their full arsenal, Bryant should have the bulk of the plate appearances among his competition.

And when he proves he can handle Cactus League pitching, there will be no good reason to keep him off the Opening Day roster.

“I’ve never really put [making the Opening Day roster] as my sole focus,” Bryant told Andracki. “Obviously, that’s my ultimate goal, but I don’t really want to think about that because it’s up in the air. I don’t really have any control over it. 

“I’m very excited to get going in spring training and show them what I’ve been working on and show them what I have. Hopefully, I go out there and make it really hard on them.”

The decision should not be difficult, though. In a sport where one game can be the difference between postseason baseball for the first time since 2008 and extending the drought to a seventh year, the 12 days Bryant would have to miss to keep him under team control for that extra year can become extremely meaningful.

If Bryant is truly is the team’s best option at third base when camp breaks, he has to be at Wrigley Field on April 5 when the Cubs host the St. Louis Cardinals, the division favorite.

On that night, the Kris Bryant era has to begin.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The offseason has been a blur, one blockbuster move after another changing the landscape as we knew it just hours before.

Brash and fearless front offices shuttling out superstars, bringing in others and changing the complexion of divisions has been the norm since before Thanksgiving. In what has become one of the most active and maybe surprising fall-winter seasons in recent memory, the balance of power has shifted in every division in both leagues over the course of three-and-a-half months.

All pitchers and catchers should be reported to their spring training camps by the end of next week—barring any odd happenings, of course—and optimism will run rampant at all of them. The reality of any club’s situation never really hits until around late June, when party lines are clearly drawn and the best teams start to distinguish themselves.

In the world of prognostication and prediction, we don’t have the luxury of waiting for things to play out. In this world, we play the games on paper because we want answers, and we need them now.

So, with about all of the roster shuffling complete and spring training a few sleeps away, let’s get to predicting what things will look like come Oct. 4.

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For a Major League Baseball superstar, the pressure is inherited with the title.

That much is a given. Whether it is a player’s past production or simply his price tag, the stars of the game are looked upon to be among the best. This becomes especially true when that player’s team is expected to win. There is little pressure on a player like Joe Mauer, whose season is not expected to dictate how his team fares.

However, for other players, the pressure is going to be turned way up this year. And the abundance of those players has grown now that there is an extra Wild Card playoff slot and since a team not believed to be a championship contender at the start of last season—the Kansas City Royals—came within one swing of winning the World Series. Now even star players on fringe teams are feeling the heat.

This season it is easy to go up and down rosters and find these players. The massive amount of turnover through trades and free agency this offseason makes this even more so since those superstars are now expected to live up to marquee billings for different franchises.

It was easy to pick out more than 10 players who fit this bill, but for round-numbers’ sake, here they are in no particular order (you can determine that at the barstool or water cooler):

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This is a curious case for Corey Kluber. 

The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner and his Cleveland Indians employers have yet to discuss a contract extension, but considering his potential value and cost, Kluber makes sense as a guy the team would want to sign to an extension.

The Indians have already acknowledged that much.

Indians may look to negotiate contract extension w/ Corey Kluber in Feb/Mar, but for now nothing brewing. CK under team control for 4 years.

— Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) January 25, 2015

“Corey represents all of the things we look for in players: dependable, reliable person, committed to his work ethic, talented,” Indians President Mark Shapiro told reporters last week, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. “Then you look at contracts and you say, ‘Can we find that point where we’re both comfortable with the shared risk?’ We don’t know that right now. That’s something that we’ll have to look at.

“As prioritization of the calendar goes, it’s something we’ll probably look at over the next couple of months. … He has all the precursors that we would look for to enter into a multiyear agreement.”

The club has long been unwilling to accept that shared risk Shapiro talks about. While the team has been aggressive in building contract extensions for some of its position players—Jason Kipnis, Michael Brantley and Yan Gomes—it has been dormant with pitchers. It did not sign its previous ace, Justin Masterson, to an extension, leaving Roberto Hernandez, then known as Fausto Carmona, in 2008 as the last pitcher the Indians have signed to an extension.

But Kluber, whose Cy Young campaign came in his second full season in the majors, could become quite expensive if he continues to produce like an ace. The Indians understand this, and that is why the thought of a new contract makes plenty of sense.

For the numbers Kluber put up last season, he is being paid like a peasant in the kingdom of Major League Baseball. He made $514,000 last season and is set to again make the league minimum this season before reaching arbitration. That price tag for 2015 could give the Indians hesitance in striking a new deal, but if Kluber continues to perform, the Indians could still have him at a bargain.

When the Chicago White Sox extended Chris Sale before the 2013 season, he had similar service time (two-plus years) as Kluber. That contract was worth $32.5 million over five years, and at around this time a year ago, the Atlanta Braves signed Julio Teheran to a six-year, $32.4 million deal. The Teheran contract came after his rookie season, and both extensions covered at least one year of free agency. The deals were in line with ones signed by Madison Bumgarner (five years, $35 million) and Ricky Romero (five years, $30.1 million).

A deal for Kluber would likely look very similar to those signed before this season. The difference between Kluber and those other pitchers is age. Kluber turns 29 on April 10, and buying even one free-agent season would mean the Indians are paying a 33-year-old pitcher, something the mid-market team has deliberately avoided.

If the Indians do not extend Kluber before his arbitration years kick in after this season, the risk is expensive, as arbitration prices for aces have reached all-time highs.

Just a couple weeks ago, Detroit Tigers ace David Price annihilated the previous record for an arbitration-eligible player, which was set last year by Max Scherzer at $15.25 million. Price was coming off a good but not great season in which he led the American League in strikeouts and innings pitched but managed just a modest 117 ERA-plus. Still, his track record and previous salary earned him a one-year, $19.75 million contract. Price’s salary was boosted by the fact that he was a Super Two player, giving him an extra year of arbitration.

If Kluber continues to be a Cy Young candidate, the Indians could see his value in arbitration skyrocket to a number they are uncomfortable paying. In that case, cost certainty, and regulating Kluber’s salary, makes a lot of sense for the organization.

The reason an extension makes sense for Kluber is the same reason the Indians might balk at buying out free-agent years: age. Kluber is a late bloomer who performed at a completely unexpected level in 2014. Certainly there is no assurance he will continue to dominate the AL as he did last season, so taking the guaranteed money is the smart, safe play. And if he can get any number of his free-agent years bought out, he should take that money, too.

As for why, aside from the obvious guaranteed cash, Kluber needs to look no further than James Shields’ struggle to land what he believes he is worth this offseason. Shields was hoping for a nine-figure contract, one that would earn him in the neighborhood of $20 million as the average annual value. Those hopes seem to have been dashed, as the 33-year-old is still unsigned two weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training.

As for the possibility of all of this actually happening, Kluber is deflecting.

“That’s not my job to worry about that,” Kluber said to Zack Meisel of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. “My job is to go out there and pitch. I have agents that can handle that stuff for me when the time comes. My job is to get prepared to play this season.”

Clearly, both sides are open to making it happen. The next two months will tell us if this sensible deal will happen sooner rather than later.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The drought needs to end.

The Toronto Blue Jays have not made the postseason since winning the World Series in 1993, the longest dry spell in Major League Baseball. Though the Jays have made blockbuster trades aimed at ending the streak in recent years, including this offseason, they have not finished any better than third in the American League East in the last eight seasons.

This offseason has been one of the most impactful in franchise history. Toronto acquired MVP candidate Josh Donaldson in a trade and signed native son Russell Martin as a free agent. But the Jays are still one major piece away from ending the drought at 21 years.

James Shields is that piece.

The Blue Jays’ rotation was not good last season, ranking 11th out of 15 AL teams with a 3.96 ERA and 10th with a 3.93 FIP. And aside from their fifth spot, the rotation will be the same for 2015, with R.A. Dickey, Marcus Stroman, Mark Buehrle and Drew Hutchison all returning. Clearly, there is room to upgrade and a significant need for a No. 1 starter.

The problem is money. The Blue Jays have a reported $5-7 million remaining in their budget, and as of now, it seems to be earmarked for bullpen improvements.

Shields is going to cost considerably more than what the Jays currently have in their budget. That is even with rumblings from CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman that the five-year, $110 million offer he was reported to have on the table was a “mirage,” and that his price tag is likely going to end up being considerably less.

If his asking price does drop, it could put the Blue Jays in play, but it would also open the door for several other teams as well. Major league sources confirmed to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal earlier this month that the Jays do indeed have interest in Shields and have had internal discussions to determine a price the club would be comfortable spending.

All offseason, the payroll threshold for the Blue Jays has been set at around $137 million, and they are currently at around $130 million in commitments, according to information from Cot’s Baseball Contracts.

In order to sign Shields, the contract would probably have to be backloaded, as is Martin’s deal. It will also require Toronto’s ownership group, Rogers Communications, to be willing to push their payroll into the $150 million territory.

There are definite obstacles in making this happen, but if it does, Shields will be the key piece in making the Blue Jays a 2015 postseason participant as he was for Kansas City’s World Series run last October.

As things stand now, the AL East seems to be the most wide-open division in baseball. Last season’s champions, the Baltimore Orioles, lost a ton of power in Nelson Cruz and a reliable bat in Nick Markakis and also do not have a true ace in their rotation. The New York Yankees are aging and prone to injuries, especially in their rotation. The Tampa Bay Rays lost their best player, Ben Zobrist, and the Boston Red Sox, despite big-time upgrades to their lineup, have real questions concerning their rotation.

Signing Shields would mean the Blue Jays have a durable No. 1 starter to head their rotation backed by one of the deepest lineups in the AL. That does not mean the Jays would be a lock to win the division, but Shields would give their chances a massive boost.

The market for Shields has taken a weird turn in the last month. Teams seem to have fleeting interest in him, and others have all but completely shut the door on signing him, including ones that have pitching needs like the San Diego Padres, Red Sox and Royals. One executive even thinks part of the problem is that Shields’ agent, Page Odle, has not marketed Shields like an ace, as The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo reported Sunday. 

Whatever the reason for Shields’ suddenly odd market, he is there to be had for the Blue Jays and at a price that has dropped significantly from the rumored $110 million. While it is easy to understand ownership’s apprehension at handing a 33-year-old pitcher upward of $80 million, the risk is still relatively small since Rosenthal reported the length of a Shields contract would likely be four years. That makes the pitcher a manageable investment.

The Blue Jays have already committed themselves to winning in 2015. The moves to acquire Donaldson and Martin prove that much. But they are still an incomplete team. They are missing a top-of-the-rotation arm, one that Shields possesses.

In order for the Toronto to legitimize its push to end the longest playoff drought in the majors, it needs to open the wallet and get its ace.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent he previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In this baseball age of advanced scouting, statistics and analytics, rarely do you find an undervalued player or the “bargains” of the winter. With players analyzed so thoroughly, no asset or weakness slips past the watchful eyes of the front office.

Value is always recognized, now more than ever.

Yet it is still possible for a team to get plenty of bang for its buck or to not have to pay wildly for potential high value. Whether through free agency or via trade, there have been several moves this fall and winter where the acquiring team not only picked up the player but also a clear win for its 2015 agenda.

Some teams bought players relatively cheap, while others nabbed assets in trades that required them to part with relatively little. Whatever the case, each of these moves could go a long way in impacting division landscapes this coming season.

As spring training approaches in a few weeks, here are this offseason’s top 10 low-cost, high-reward moves, in no particular order.

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