Several teams are in the mix for Japanese star Masahiro Tanaka, who could sign with an MLB team any day now, as well as free agents Matt Garza, Ubaldo Jimenez and Ervin Santana. In the case of those four starting pitchers, however, they won’t necessarily end up with teams, aside from the New York Yankees, that have a gaping hole in their starting rotations.
Teams hoping to fill obvious needs on their roster will be looking elsewhere in what has become a very thin market for trades and free agents this late in the offseason.
Here are five teams with roster problems and some possible solutions for each.