Kuzul

It’s difficult not to admire the aggressive approaches of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox—two of the biggest spenders of the 2015-16 MLB offseason.

No one knows just yet how it will all shake out, but on paper, the upcoming campaign is looking awfully promising for those two franchises. At the same time, some clubs’ offseason overhauls don’t look nearly as impressive.

Let’s take a trip around the league and explore which teams have orchestrated the best and worst winter rebuilds.

Makeovers are all about total transformations, not just refurbishing already-competitive teams. For the purpose of this exercise, only squads that weren’t in contention (and weren’t on the right side of .500) in 2015 were eligible for consideration.

To determine which front offices executed the best and worst makeovers, we took one central factor into consideration: how effectively the given brass addressed their most glaring weakness from 2015.

The outlook for each team’s division also factored into the equation, and for a couple of American League hopefuls, that’s bad news.

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Only a fool would argue that the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox haven’t drastically upgraded their respective rosters heading into the 2016 MLB season.

The Cubs and the Red Sox are the kings of the winter, and with that title comes endless praise. The big question, as spring training hurtles closer, is whether that praise has reached unrealistic levels.

It’s not easy to measure praise or hype or buzz, but it’s also far from impossible. In order to determine which teams are already being overhyped entering the upcoming campaign, we’ve considered a slew of factors:

• The words/expectations of players on the given clubs
• Odds Shark’s World Series odds
• FanGraphs’ 2016 projections
• The landscape of each team’s division

As the four franchises who cracked this list will likely find out, it’s that final bullet point that will prove to be the biggest reason why it’s time to pump the brakes on the hype machine.

Detroit Tigers

2015 Record: 74-87

Key Additions: SP Jordan Zimmermann, SP Mike Pelfrey, OF Cameron Maybin, RP Francisco Rodriguez, RP Justin Wilson and RP Mark Lowe

Mike Ilitch, the 86-year-old owner of the Detroit Tigers, isn’t playing around. For the boss in Motown, it’s all about winning now.

“That’s all I think about,” Ilitch said, per Jason Beck of MLB.com. “It’s something that I really want. I want it bad.”

Thanks to a busy offseason of free-agent additions and trades, the Tigers, who piled up the second-most losses in the American League in 2015, climbed to the No. 8 spot in the power rankings.

The star acquisition for Detroit has been Jordan Zimmermann, who arrived on a five-year, $110 million pact. The righty immediately improves a starting crew that ranked last in the AL in ERA in 2015.

General manager Al Avila also revamped a suspect pen (No. 27 in ERA) by importing the likes of Francisco Rodriguez, Justin Wilson and Mark Lowe.

Even with all of the new names at Comerica Park, there are two big reasons to take it easy on the hype.

The first is that the Tigers call the savage AL Central home.

The Kansas City Royals are the reigning World Series champs, the Minnesota Twins missed a wild-card berth by three games, and don’t forget about the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. The Tribe sports the scariest starting rotation in the division (fourth in the AL in ERA in 2015) and the South Siders have gone on a shopping spree of their own.

Then there are all those “ifs.”

If Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Justin Verlander and Anibal Sanchez, who all missed significant time due to injury in 2015,  bounce back, then watch out for the Tigers. But that’s a lot of ifs.

Chicago Cubs

2015 Record: 97-65

Key Additions: SP John Lackey, OF Jason Heyward, UTL Ben Zobrist, RP Adam Warren, RP Rex Brothers and RP Trevor Cahill (re-signed)

Jason Heyward, the Chicago Cubs $184 million offseason pickup, is feeling awfully good about his new squad and their chances of securing a World Series title.

“We don’t show up for any other reason than that,” Heyward said, per Carrie Muskat of MLB.com. “We’ll see what’s going to happen, but I feel like the front office, the organization, ownership has done a great job of giving us a great platform to go out there, play baseball and try to win a World Series.”

Vegas agrees with the defensive wizard. Per Odds Shark, the Cubs are tied with the San Francisco Giants as the favorites to win the Fall Classic.

After an offseason that has also included the additions of John Lackey and Ben Zobrist, Chicago earned the No. 1 spot in the most recent power rankings.

Here’s the problem: The Cubs won 97 games in 2015, but the team also finished in third place in its own division.

Let’s begin with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Simply put, it’s never wise to bet against the Redbirds. No team in baseball is more adept at plugging holes on its roster than the Cardinals. Heyward left for a rival, but the club has outfielders Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk—who both out-OPS’d Heyward in 2015—ready to take on more prominent roles.

Lackey’s loss will hurt, but St. Louis has brought in the reliable, if unheralded Mike Leake to replace him. For the Cards, the wild card of the offseason is reliever Seung-hwan Oh, who Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports dubbed “the Mariano Rivera of Korea.”

Over at PNC Park, it’s been a characteristically quiet offseason for the Pittsburgh Pirates, as zero big-time splashes have been made. But the core of the team that won 98 games in 2015 remains intact.

In other words, the Cubs aren’t the clear favorites in the NL—much less their own division, which will once again be a nasty three-team race.

San Francisco Giants

2015 Record: 84-78

Key Additions: SP Johnny Cueto, SP Jeff Samardzija and OF Denard Span

This is going to look really stupid in November when the San Francisco Giants bust out the postseason magic and win yet another even year World Series.

But for now, there are plenty of real reasons to question just how much better the Giants (No. 3 in the power rankings and tied atop the field on OddsShark.com) really are entering 2016.

Let’s start with Denard Span. The eight-year vet, who will be 32 years old by the time opening day rolls around, is a game-changer—when he’s healthy.

“Span was the biggest loss of all of them [for the Washington Nationals] for me,” A source told Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller. “He’s a true leadoff guy. Legitimate, true leadoff.”

But last year, Span was not healthy, as he only played in 61 games. At the beginning of September, Span underwent hip surgery. That’s one scary procedure for a guy who’s game is based on his legs.

There are also some concerns about the arms that the Giants acquired.

Dating back to the beginning of 2011, Johnny Cueto has one remarkable resume:

ERA leaders since 2011:2.11 – Kershaw2.71 – Cueto2.82 – Greinke2.94 – Sale2.99 – Wainwright3.02 – Price3.03 – Felix3.05 – Bumgarner

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) December 14, 2015

However, the recent results are far less flattering. The second half of 2015 was a train wreck for the Dominican, as he posted a 4.76 ERA in 13 starts for the Kansas City Royals.

For Jeff Samardzija, all of 2015 was a train wreck.

Last season, the Shark gave up more hits and earned runs than any other pitcher in the majors. And the Giants just gave that guy $90 million over five years.

Boston Red Sox

2015 Record: 78-84

Key Additions: SP David Price, RP Craig Kimbrel, RP Carson Smith and OF Chris Young

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is getting a lot of love for his rapid-fire rebuild of the Boston Red Sox.

FanGraphs projected the Sox to win the second-most games in the bigs in 2016, and Odds Shark pegged the club as having the third-best shot at winning the World Series behind only co-favorites Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants.

It’s easy enough to understand why the Red Sox, who finished 15 games off the pace in the AL East in 2015, are so highly thought of heading into the upcoming campaign. Bringing in AL Cy Young runner-up David Price and four-time All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel will have that effect.

But don’t forget the Toronto Blue Jays, who reached the AL Championship Series, and the New York Yankees, who have acquired Aroldis Chapman and Starlin Castro, are around to quiet the Boston buzz.

As Richard Justice of MLB.com noted on Twitter, “parity” is the operative word when it comes to this division:

Parity? AL East has had 4 different division champs last 4 years: Blue Jays in 2015, O’s in 2014, Red Sox in 2013, Yankees in 2012.

— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) January 16, 2016

With the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Yankees headlining the field (and the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays both within shouting distance), parity will once again be the theme of the division in 2016.

Note: All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and MLB.com. All salary information courtesy of Cot’s Baseball Contracts on BaseballProspectus.com.

If you want to talk baseball, find me on Twitter @KarlBuscheck.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Another week. Another round of questions about Yoenis Cespedes, Chris Davis and Justin Upton—baseball’s unfortunate free-agent trio.

As Week 10 of the 2015-16 MLB offseason draws to a close, the future remains murky for those prime-time mashers who are still hanging out in a winter purgatory. The good news for one of those guys (and the bad news for another) is that there’s a new five-year offer to report.

There’s also room in the conversation for talk about yet another impact outfielder, whose name just keeps popping up in the trade rumor mill. Plus, with arbitration hearing looming on the horizon, some All-Stars, Cy Youngs and even an MVP are set to cash in.

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Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion of the Toronto Blue Jays are not only two of the most dangerous hitters in the American League, but they are also two of the headliners of the 2017 MLB free-agent class.

“Joey Bats” is the top right fielder and Encarnacion is the scariest designated hitter, but who are the prime-time guys at all the other spots?

After digging through the recent stats—and placing the most emphasis on 2015 numbers—here’s the breakdown of the top free-agents-to-be at every position on the diamond.

In addition to singling out the biggest stars (and some deserving honorable mentions), we’ve also included logical landings spots based on which clubs have a need (and an opening) at the given positions.

After poring over MLB Trade Rumor.com’s free-agent list, there’s no question that the class of starters is looking awfully weak. However, there are still plenty of game-changing pitchers who will be up for grabs next winter.

*Note: Players with an asterisk either have a team option or an opt-out clause.

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Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson isn’t just the reigning American League MVP—he’s also a man who deserves to get paid.

Looking around the league, there are plenty of MLB stars like Donaldson whose current employers should be racing to lock them up.

The 10 big leaguers who make this list are all arbitration eligible, which means they are one to three seasons away from hitting the free-agent front.

What follows are breakdowns for how each of those contract extensions should be structured. Due to a variety of factors—from the age of the given player to his current contract situation to which agent is representing him—some of these proposed extensions are far more realistic than others.

We’ll use MLBTradeRumors.com’s salary arbitration projections for 2016 as a jumping-off point for determining how much each player is worth. The proposed salaries are also based on the deals that free agents have signed this offseason and how the respective players compare to other similar guys on this list.

From David Price to Zack Greinke to Johnny Cueto, this has been the offseason of the opt-out. With that trend in mind, many of these proposed extensions give the players the opportunity to bolt town long before the full deal is up.

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From the arrival of Zack Greinke at Chase Field to the landing of David Price at Fenway Park, it has been an ambitious offseason for big spenders like the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Boston Red Sox.

The question now becomes whether that offseason ambition will transform into wins on the field in 2016. As we get set for the latest round of “contender” or “pretender,” let’s begin by laying out the ground rules.

Only teams that weren’t in contention in 2015 were eligible for the list. That means there’s no room for the likes of the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees, who have been doing plenty of business but who were both already established in the contender conversation before the offseason began.

In the process of labeling the following five teams, we took two key factors into consideration:

• How successfully each team addressed its most glaring weakness(es)
• The landscape of each team’s division/league

Squads like the D-backs and Red Sox, which have imported prominent players such as Greinke and Price, dominate the list, but there’s also a spot for one team’s whose most consequential additions have been to the coaching staff.

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It’s good to be David Price and Jason Heyward.

During the 2015-2016 MLB offseason, the lefty ace and defensive whiz raked in contracts worth slightly more than $400 million combined.

The big question moving forward is just how well those megadeals will work out for their new employers, the Boston Red Sox (Price) and Chicago Cubs (Heyward).

In the process of ranking the 15 largest contracts (in terms of overall value) from worst to best, we considered two key factors.

The first factor was how well the specific move addressed both the short- and long-term needs of the given team. The second factor was how the individual contract compared to deals for similar players. Did Club X wildly overpay for a headliner, or does the price tag match up with other spending around the league?

Starting at No. 15—the worst deal of all—let’s count down to No. 1—the best deal of the offseason. As it turns out, the same club bookends these rankings.

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The glacial market for bats is slowly beginning to thaw, which means the long winter wait for Yoenis Cespedes, Chris Davis and Justin Upton should soon draw to an end as Week 9 of the 2015-2016 MLB offseason comes to a close.

While those unemployed sluggers dominate the conversation, there’s also room for some talk about a retired masher and a former ace whose Hall of Fame credentials are in the headlines.

Plus, an important question has popped up in Southern California following the latest executive addition to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ All-Star front office.

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There’s still a year to go before MLB will announce the 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame class, but it wouldn’t be the worst idea for Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell, Trevor Hoffman and Vladimir Guerrero to start looking into travel arrangements in upstate New York.

After we dug through the numbers—both advanced and otherwise—and examined the recent voting trends, those are the four former big leaguers who have the best odds of making it to the Hall in 2017.

The field also includes the likes of Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez, both of whom have the numbers to cruise into Cooperstown but have been clouded by links to performance-enhancing drugs.

While the odds are still against those sluggers, the results from the 2016 vote suggest that the landscape could soon change in a big way.

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The crazy part about Yoenis Cespedes, Chris Davis, Alex Gordon and Justin Upton all remaining unemployed at this late date in the offseason is that there’s still a tremendous need for corner bats across the game.

The Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals are just a few of the contending clubs who should add an impact hitter as the 2016 season inches ever closer.

Before compiling the shopping list that follows, the first order of business was defining the term “contender.” For the purpose of this exercise, contenders had to meet one of two requirements:

1. Post a .500 record or better in 2015
2. Work aggressively to improve their club on the free-agent and trade fronts this winter

Ultimately, 21 clubs cleared at least one of those bars and cracked a spot. And with the Senior Circuit flooded with teams in tank mode, the American League dominates the list.

Starting in the AL West and moving across the league, let’s explore the one pesky area—whether it’s a position, depth or a quality (like power)—that each contender needs to address to mask a weakness and improve its playoff chances. 

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