Kuzul

Free agency is quite often crucial to a team’s short- and long-term success. While many players are drafted and brought through an organization’s farm system, more times than not it comes down to the ability of a team to bring in top-end free agents. 

However, the risks involved with signing free agents are apparent in every Major League Baseball season. Year in and year out, players fail to live up to their multi-million dollar contracts.

Who are the riskiest players available this year? Whether it is a player’s age, inconsistency, or propensity to be injured, each player on this list has his own set of risk factors.

Here are the 15 biggest risks still available on the free agent market.

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Patience is a virtue. Or so I have been told.

For the Yankees and the Rangers, they have basically been waiting on a decision from Cliff Lee over the last week.

Now, it seems like it’s been forever (more like a few days) since the Yankees had increased their offer to Cliff Lee, which was for seven years and around $161 million.

If anyone has not noticed the change in my profile picture, this past Friday in my hometown of Toms River, NJ, I got married and now begin a new journey in my life.

I thank fellow Bleacher Report writers like Stephen Meyer, Jonathan Mathis and Lewie Pollis for their sincere congratulations and well-wishes over the weekend.

It was funny during that weekend and during my reception, people of all sorts came up to me and asked me, “Is Cliff Lee ever going to accept the offer from the Yankees?”

In a perfect world, that would have been a nice wedding gift to me, but it just hasn’t been that simple. Not for the Yankees or the Rangers.

Last week, Rangers owner Chuck Greenberg flew down to Arkansas to meet with Lee and agent Derek Braunecker to increase their original offer of five years and $100 million to six years, probably around $120-125 million.

Greenberg gave Lee a menu of choices to choose from, as did the Yankees and their general manager, Brian Cashman, with the highest offer being the seven-year deal.

Right now, as we sit here after the weekend, Lee has yet to make a decision. But we do have some new developments.

According to ESPN’s Karl Ravech, through Buster Olney from Twitter, the Rangers are aggressively going hard after free-agent third baseman Adrian Beltre.

If Texas is going hard after Beltre, does that mean the Rangers are essentially out on the Lee sweepstakes?

You can almost think so, considering Beltre is looking for a deal of about five years and around $70 million.

Texas does have Michael Young at third base, but last week, there were a lot of discussions of the Rangers looking to move Young or switch him to another position.

If Texas is going after Beltre, it would cost Texas less money to sign Beltre than to go after Lee.

According to ESPN’s Olney, again through his Twitter, Braunecker has been in contact with the Yankees today, and the process has been ongoing through the day.

Personally, I wonder from Olney’s tweet and of my own interpretation is Braunecker and the Yankees possibly working out the financial terms and makings of a contract?

Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions here, maybe I am not.

Maybe Lee has decided to take the Yankees’ offer over Texas, Braunecker has been talking with the Yankees to get everything in order, and Texas is moving in the direction of Beltre.

Just pure speculation and guessing on my part.

But as we sit here early in this week, we are still continuing to wait on the biggest decision from the biggest prize still on the free-agent market.

New York or Texas?

Stay tuned.

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It has been a busy off-season thus far that has seen almost all of the coveted free agents sign with different teams.

We have seen Jayson Werth sign a massive contract with the Nationals, Carl Crawford signed a bigger contract with the Red Sox, and the Sox also acquired Adrian Gonzalez.

There are numerous free agents left on the market and only half of them are really good players.  Meaning that the asking price for certain players like Derrek Lee and Adam LaRoche will go up because they are the best left at their position.

So, now is the perfect time to analyze the risks, rewards, and my predictions for all the free agents that are left like Beltre and Lee.

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Adrian Beltre picked a good time to become a free agent and a good year to produce like an elite offensive force. Of course we’ve seen this before. Teams should be scared to offer Beltre anything close to the deals given to elite hitters so far this offseason. Beltre has not been especially consistent over his career, though he does play exceptional defense and can be counted on for 25 home runs of so wherever he plays.

Most teams appear to be set at third base or can expect the continued development of a younger player to fill the role. Of the few teams that make sense for Beltre, several of them seem unlikely because of financial issues, the type of home ballpark, or just because he doesn’t seem to fit in with the type of team they are. Nevertheless here are six interesting destinations for Beltre and one that seems especially likely and necessary.

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Now that the Winter Meetings are over and Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth have signed mammoth contracts, what’s next? What other impact free-agents are still out there? 

It looks more likely this winter that there will be significant player movement via trade. In this economic climate it makes sense for smaller market teams to trade players who are looking at large salary increases in the near future in exchange for younger players that they can control for a significant amount of time.

Let’s take a look at 15 of the various rumors still circulating and see if they have any juice behind them.

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The winter meetings have seen a lot of action so far.

Carl Crawford signed with the Boston Red Sox yesterday for seven years and 142 million dollars. This was in the wake of the huge contract given to Jayson Werth a week earlier from the Washington Nationals.

After the top two hitters on the market have signed, the remaining players have a starting point in negotiations and there are still plenty of quality hitters remaining for teams looking to fill out their lineups.

Here are the top 20 hitters remaining.

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The rumors are flying in the already steaming Major League Baseball hot stove.  With the Winter Meetings starting today, many free agents are sure to find new homes in the upcoming days and weeks.

But where will they end up? The answer is not as sure for some as it is for others. 

With the outlandish deal given to Jayson Werth, the uncertainty of this offseason has dramatically increased. After more major players sign, the dominoes are sure to fall. Here are 10 of the most coveted prizes of this offseason, their possible suitors and where they will end up. 

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The dominoes are starting to fall. Jayson Werth has signed a surprisingly large contract with the Washington Nationals (seven years, $126 million) leaving outfielder Carl Crawford as the number one prize on the free agent market. Crawford and his agent were already looking for a contract in the $100 million dollar range, but if Werth going to average $18 million a season what can Crawford now command?

While the Angels certainly do need to get younger and more athletic in the outfield I believe their more pressing need is fortifying the infield. It’s no secret third base was an offensive black hole for the 2010 Angels. With the free agent loss of Chone Figgins and the development failure of Brandon Wood the Halos were forced to go without a regular starter most of the season.

This is why the Angels must put Adrian Beltre at the top of their free agent shopping list.

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Eric Denton is the head writer and content editor at LA Angels Insider.com. Angels coverage from the locker room to the press box to the front office and everywhere in between. Featuring interviews with the players and coaches making headlines for the Angels.

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The Boston Red Sox acquired power-hitting Adrian Gonzalez in a trade with the San Diego Padres for three top prospects. As a result of this trade, Kevin Youkilis will move from first base to third base.

This also means that Adrian Beltre will not play for the Red Sox in 2011.

After a major down year in 2009, Beltre had a bounce-back year in Boston hitting .321, 28 HR and 102 RBI. It was only the second time in his career that he has hit 100 RBI or more.

He has always been a solid to great fielder and is only a shade past 30.

There are many playoff contenders that could use Adrian Beltre and here are some of them.

Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox have already made a splash by signing Adam Dunn and are still looking to sign first baseman Paul Konerko. They should also sign Beltre and solidify the hot corner.

St. Louis Cardinals

Last Year the St. Louis Cardinals were beat out by the Cincinnati Reds for the NL Central crown. I don’t know how committed they are on young David Freese but Adrian Beltre might be the difference between playoffs and couch potato time come October.

LA Angles

The Angles are known to make similar signings in the past and Beltre would be a great complement to Morales. Alberto Callaspo was a good patchwork job for the Angles at the hot corner but he is not at the same level as Beltre.

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Rumor has it that the Orioles have emerged as the front-runners for third-baseman Mark Reynolds.

Buster Olney reported the whispers this morning, confirming what Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman suspected last night.

So far, the only real pieces being discussed in a possible trade are Chris Tillman and David Hernandez, who has been linked to more teams this off-season than Adam Dunn.

Tillman, 22, emerged as one of the Orioles top prospects after coming over from Seattle in the trade that sent Erik Bedard to the Mariners. He made his big-league debut in 2009, and over the course of two seasons has posted a 4-10 record with a 5.63 ERA.

Hernandez, 25, began with the Orioles as a starter, dominating with a extremely deceptive delivery at every level of the minors. He arrived in Baltimore in 2009 also, struggling as a member of their rotation. However, he thrived last season after being moved to the bullpen, and that is where his future almost certainly lies.

It would likely take more than two players to get a deal done for Reynolds, who last season became the first player in Major League history to strike out more than 200 times in three consecutive seasons. Both sources believe that the Orioles side of the deal will be very “pitcher centric.”

One would have to think that Tillman, Hernandez and possibly a lesser known arm, maybe like Ryan Berry or Wynn Pelzer could get the deal done.

The only two other teams really in on Reynolds are the Blue Jays (please God no) and the Padres, who if another set of rumors are true, aren’t actively pursuing the slugger.

Reynolds hit a paltry .198 last season, making him the most sought-after hitter in history to fall short of the Mendoza line. He did, however, crank 32 homers, good for sixth in the N.L. last year. He also drove in 85 runs and walked a career-high 83 times.

Now, on to the news on the Konerko front.

The Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Zrebiec thinks that any interest the Orioles have had in Konerko has been extremely overblown, stating that “the next person I speak to in the organization who feels the O’s have a shot at Konerko would be the first.”

Meaning that the Orioles’ dire need for a power-hitting, corner-infielder simply makes them one of the more plausible scenarios, not necessarily the most likely. Especially in the eyes of the O’s front-office who missed out on Victor Martinez, and low-balled Adam Dunn, who spurned their offer to sign with the White Sox for $16 million more.

The longer Konerko remains a free agent, the more likely it appears that he will re-sign with the White Sox.

In other news outside the Charm City, the Red Sox have apparently agreed to a deal that would bring San Diego first-baseman Adrian Gonzalez to Beantown.

Most believe that this makes the likelihood of them bringing back Adrian Beltre very, very unlikely. 

But imagine if they had them both.

This makes me think the O’s might make a serious run at Beltre. They could use a third-baseman a tad bit more than a guy at first anyways. Brandon Snyder should get his chance this season, and he could thrive, but I know one thing—he certainly won’t thrive at third-base, where the Orioles best minor league hope is strikeout king Brandon Waring and on again-off again third-baseman Billy Rowell.

Beltre just makes too much sense to not consider.

He makes your team instantly better, gives you a legitimate middle-of-the-order presence, and offers solid defense. Not to mention the fact that he gives the O’s some star-power and takes some of the attention off of their young core.

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