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While some MLB teams are taking a wait-and-see approach as they ponder making a run at some of the more high-profile free agents who remain unsigned—a list that includes Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Mark Trumbo—others are busy working the phones in an attempt to bolster their rosters via trades.

There’s been plenty of chatter on the rumor mill since baseball’s annual winter meetings came to an end. Unsurprisingly, much of that talk has revolved around pitching, both starters and relievers.

What follows is a look at potential trades involving some of those arms, including an All-Star closer. Keep in mind these proposed deals are only ideas and speculation. Unless otherwise noted, there’s no indication any of them have been discussed.

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Whether it was record-setting contracts for free-agent closers or blockbuster trades that involved All-Star-caliber players and big-time prospects, there was plenty for the baseball world to get its hands around at last week’s winter meetings.

Every move a team made had far-reaching consequences.

Potential landing spots disappeared for some free agents, whether due to a team’s going in another direction or spending the bulk of its disposable income elsewhere.

Players being dangled as trade bait were ultimately looked over by potential suitors, who signed other free agents in some cases and played their most valuable trade chips to bolster another part of their roster in others.

As a result, a slew of notable players find themselves facing an uncertain future—a position nobody wants to be in. Which players currently find themselves in the worst spots?

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A pair of high-profile free agents—Aroldis Chapman (New York Yankees) and Ian Desmond (Colorado Rockies)—both came off the market Wednesday, but Chicago was once again the center of the baseball universe, as both the Cubs and White Sox pulled off notable trades on Day 3 of baseball’s winter meetings.

The White Sox traded outfielder Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals for a trio of high-upside pitching prospects—Dane Dunning, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez—while the Cubs sent slugger Jorge Soler to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for All-Star closer Wade Davis.

While those moves were significant, we’re left with a slew of unanswered questions as the final day of winter meetings gets underway.

Is Kenley Jansen going to beat Chapman’s record-setting five-year, $86 million pact for a free-agent closer? Are the White Sox done dealing? Does anyone want Edwin Encarnacion or Mark Trumbo? And who, if anyone, will be selected in the Rule 5 draft, which begins at 9 a.m. ET?

Keep it here throughout the day for the answers to some of those questions, the latest chatter and analysis of all the moves. Hit us up in the comments section below and on Twitter (@RickWeinerBR) with your thoughts on all the action.

Done Deals

Thursday: RP Koji Uehara signs a one-year, $4.5 million deal with the Chicago Cubs (per Japan’s Nikkan Sports via the Boston Herald‘s Evan Drellich).

Rule 5 Draft (Former team)

Minnesota: RHP Miguel Diaz (MIL): Traded to Padres in exchange for a PTBNL or cash

Cincinnati: C Luis Torrens (NYY): Traded to Padres in exchange for a PTBNL or cash

San Diego: SS Allen Cordoba (STL)

Tampa Bay: RHP Kevin Gadea (SEA)

Atlanta: RHP Armando Rivero (CHC)

Arizona: RHP Tyler Jones (NYY)

Milwaukee: LHP Caleb Smith (NYY): Traded to Cubs in exchange for a PTBNL or cash

Los Angeles (AL): RHP Justin Haley (BOS): Traded to San Diego and then Minnesota, both deals for a PTBNL or cash.

Chicago (AL): RHP Dylan Covey (OAK)

Pittsburgh: LHP Tyler Webb (NYY)

Detroit: LHP Daniel Stumpf (KC)

Baltimore: 2B Aneury Tavarez (BOS)

Toronto: RHP Glenn Sparkman (KC)

Boston: IF Josh Rutledge (COL)

Cleveland: LHP Holby Milner (PHI)

Texas: RHP Michael Hauschild (HOU)

Cincinnati: C Stuart Turner (MIN)

Baltimore: 1B/OF Anthony Santander (CLE)

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

From Roberto Clemente (1954) to Johan Santana (1999), some special players have found their way to the big leagues through MLB‘s Rule 5 draft. As usual, this year’s iteration represents the last major event of the annual winter meetings, and it is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. ET Thursday.

How does it all work? Who is eligible? Here’s everything you need to know, courtesy of MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo:

• “Players who first signed at age 18 had to be added to 40-man rosters within five seasons or they become eligible to be drafted by other organizations through the Rule 5 process.“

• “Players signed at 19 years or older have to be protected within four seasons.”

• “Clubs pay $100,000 to select a player in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft. If that player doesn’t stay on the 25-man roster for the full season, he must be offered back to his former team for $50,000.”

A pair of relievers, St. Louis’ Matt Bowman (3.46 ERA, 1.17 WHIP) and Toronto’s Joe Biagini (3.06 ERA, 1.30 WHIP), were the standouts from last year’s draft, which saw 10 of the 16 players selected log time in the big leagues for their new clubs.

Will this year’s draft deliver more impact picks? Here’s a look at a handful of prospects who could contribute in the big leagues next season as Rule 5 selections.

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Four free agents came off the board on the first day of the 2016 MLB winter meetings—a tetrad highlighted by Rich Hill’s re-signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Mark Melancon’s joining the San Francisco Giants.

But those deals were somewhat overshadowed by a slew of rumors and speculation surrounding some big names, which ranged from free agents like Aroldis Chapman and Edwin Encarnacion to potential trade targets such as Chicago’s Chris Sale and Kansas City’s dynamic duo of Lorenzo Cain and Wade Davis.

What does Day 2 of the winter meetings have in store?

Keep it here for the latest chatter and analysis of all the moves, and chime in with your thoughts in both the comments section below and on Twitter (@RickWeinerBR).

Done Deals

Tuesday: Boston trades SS Mauricio Dubon, RHP Josh Pennington and 1B/3B Travis Shaw to Milwaukee in exchange for RHP Tyler Thornburg, per FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman.

Tuesday: Boston trades OF Luis Alexander Basabe, RHPs Victor Diaz and RHP Michael Kopech and IF Yoan Moncada to Chicago in exchange for LHP Chris Sale, per Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal and USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Teams wasted little time in getting down to business on the first day of MLB‘s annual winter meetings, as Rich Hill and Mark Melancon, two of the higher-profile free agents, came off the board. Hill re-signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, while Melancon signed on to solidify the back-end of San Francisco’s bullpen.

Trade chatter continues to swirl around a slew of players, including Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale. But don’t expect the southpaw to be dealt anytime soon. Some of the teams in the mix for the Chicago White Sox ace tell ESPN’s Jayson Stark that the asking price has not dropped and, as a result, none of them foresee a trade getting done during the winter meetings.

How high is that asking price, you ask? FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman hears that the White Sox asked Houston for a package that included third baseman/shortstop/outfielder Alex Bregman, a request the Astros promptly denied.

But enough about a deal that isn’t likely to be completed this week.

What follows is a look at the biggest moves and most significant rumors from baseball’s annual gathering, held this year in National Harbor, Maryland.

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The baseball world is about to descend on National Harbor in Maryland, as MLB‘s 2016 winter meetings are set to kick off on Monday. And things are sure to be rather interesting.

That’s not to say that it hasn’t been an interesting offseason thus far. But with names like Chris Archer, Aroldis Chapman, Edwin Encarnacion, Andrew McCutchen and Chris Sale all making the rounds on the rumor mill, it’s easy to believe that the baseball world is about to be turned upside down. 

While the winter meetings often serve as the place that future deals are born, it’d be shocking if there weren’t a few notable transactions completed while the baseball universe takes over the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.

Will Encarnacion sign? Is McCutchen going to be traded? Who, among Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon, will be the first of the elite closers to come off the market?

What follows are five impact deals that we believe will be pulled off during baseball’s annual gathering, some of them providing answers to the questions above.

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Labor peace has returned to baseball, ending the veiled threats of lockouts and boycotts of the winter meetings, which are set to begin next week. That’s good news.

It’s even better news—and a stone-cold fact—that sanity has returned to MLB‘s All-Star Game, which will no longer have any World Series implications associated with it. That alone makes the new collective bargaining agreement a rousing success.

As Bleacher Report’s Jacob Shafer wrote Wednesday, the offseason should really start to get interesting now. 

Has the return of a team’s adopted prodigal son forced one of his teammates out the door? Will a fringe contender look to unload an All-Star talent? Is the face of one of baseball’s oldest franchises about to change for the first time in nearly a decade?

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Four weeks after the Chicago Cubs bested the Cleveland Indians in seven games to clinch their first World Series crown in more than a century, the MLB landscape has seen a number of changes.

Brian McCann and Josh Reddick are now members of the Houston Astros. Taijuan Walker is no longer part of Seattle’s rotation, having been shipped off to Arizona in a deal that bought infielder Jean Segura to the Pacific Northwest.

But the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Yoenis Cespedes, baseball’s most sought-after free agent, has reportedly decided to stay put in New York and re-sign with the Mets, as Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported on Twitter.

Nearly every move that’s been made thus far has had some sort of impact on the landscape of the offseason market. Some, like Cespedes re-signing, have had a bigger impact than others. How have things changed?

Let’s take a look.

The Corner Outfield Market Remains Crowded

As one slugging corner outfielder comes off the board, another one hits the market. With Cespedes sticking around Citi Field, Jay Bruce, whom New York acquired from Cincinnati as an insurance policy against the Cuban-born slugger departing, has now become expendable.

And it hasn’t taken long for teams in need of outfield help to notice.

That’s not good news for former Blue Jay Jose Bautista, arguably the best free-agent corner outfielder left on the market.

If you were the general manager of a team in need of a corner outfielder, would you rather trade some mid-level prospects for one year of Bruce, who is due $13.5 million in his age-30 season, or make a longer, more expensive commitment to Bautista, who will be entering his age-36 campaign?

And it doesn’t stop with Bautista. Colby Rasmus, Michael Saunders and Mark Trumbo, he of the MLB-leading 47 home runs, could all find themselves knocked down a peg or two on the wish lists of teams looking for an outfielder due to Bruce joining the market.

It’s Not Such a Great Winter to Be a Free-Agent Starter

‘Member Chewbacca? I mean, remember the notion that halfway decent starting pitchers were going to wind up being overpaid this winter due to the lack of quality free-agent options available? We can toss that notion aside, for things simply haven’t played out that way.

Consider the deals that these four veteran hurlers have inked:

• Andrew Cashner: Signed a one-year, $10 million deal with Texas
• Bartolo Colon: Signed a one-year, $12.5 million deal with Atlanta
• R.A. Dickey: Signed a one-year, $7.5 million deal with Atlanta
• Edinson Volquez: Signed a two-year, $22 million deal with Miami

That works out to a combined five-year, $52 million deal—$18 million less than it cost Kansas City to sign Ian Kennedy last winter when the likes of Johnny Cueto, Zack Greinke and David Price led a deep class of free-agent starters.

So while four teams are “in full pursuit” of Rich Hill, the best starter remaining on the open market, according to ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden, the injury-prone 36-year-old isn’t likely to spark a massive bidding war. That’s especially true when there are still plenty of options potentially available via trades.

Aside from Arizona’s stockpile of arms, Chicago’s Jose Quintana and Chris Sale, Oakland’s Sonny Gray, Washington’s Gio Gonzalez and Tampa Bay’s stash of starters, including Chris Archer and Jake Odorizzi, could all find themselves on the move before Opening Day.

That’s only going to further limit the earning power of the free-agent starters still on the market—and increase the return teams with quality pitching to spare can expect to receive in a swap.

Relief Pitching Is More Expensive Than Anticipated

With all due respect to Brett Cecil, it’s hard not to look at the four-year, $30.5 million deal he got from the St. Louis Cardinals as something of an overpay. 

After all, Cecil isn’t a closer and is coming off his worst season since becoming a full-time reliever, pitching to a 3.93 ERA and 1.28 WHIP over 36.2 innings of work for Toronto. 

If Cecil is worth that much, then what are setup men with significant closing experience going to command?

Take 28-year-old Neftali Feliz, who put up similar numbers to Cecil’s last season in Pittsburgh (3.52 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 53.2 IP) as an example. Not only is he two years younger than Cecil, but he’s got nearly 100 saves under his belt, having been named an All-Star and the American League Rookie of the Year as Texas’ closer in 2010.

It’s hard to argue that he’s not worth more than Cecil.

What about actual closers? It’s been a foregone conclusion for months that the elite options available—Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon—would all shatter Jonathan Papelbon’s record for a free-agent closer (four years, $50 million).

Could one (or more) of them double Papelbon’s pact? If nothing else, Cecil’s deal makes it just a bit harder to discount the notion of a nine-figure closer.

Unless otherwise noted, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

MLB‘s long-lasting labor peace seems to be sitting precariously on the edge of a cliff, with sources telling ESPN’s Buster Olney that teams will skip next week’s winter meetings if “sufficient progress” isn’t made in talks with the MLB Players Association.

While that’s unquestionably put some teams in a holding pattern when it comes to getting serious about making significant roster moves, it hasn’t silenced the rumor mill, which continues to churn out rumor and speculation on the trade front.

Over the past week, that chatter has revolved around a number of players, including a Gold Glove Award-winning outfielder, a former All-Star closer and a slugging second baseman.

Keep in mind these proposed deals are only ideas and speculation. Unless otherwise noted, there’s no indication any of them have actually been discussed.

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