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While Adrian Beltre is the last big name free agent off the market, that doesn’t mean all the talent is gone. There are still a good number of players on the market that could help a team this season. As it stands now, teams are scrambling to try and address their needs before the available talent pool has dried up.

Some teams will get healthier than others, other teams will suddenly have more to spend, and it could lead to some players in some interesting places. Here is a look at some of the latest rumors involving potential baseball free agent signings. 

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Via Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated:

Andruw Jones in on the Yankees list of righty hitting OFs to consider.

I wanted to bring this one up to kind of debunk it a little. I’m not saying that the Yankees aren’t considering Jones, it’s very possible that they are, but Jones just happens to be a Scott Boras client and Heyman has a reputation of passing along anything Boras says.

In this case, Boras would want Heyman to pass this along because it could cause other teams who might be interested in Jones to up their offer if they think the Yankees are involved.

If the Yankees are considering Jones, that would be a very good thing, though.

Jones can play all three outfield positions adequately, shows patience at the plate and still has some pop in his bat. He’s also a right handed bat who would compliment the lefties in their lineup.

So it does make sense that the Yankees would be interested.

Related Stories

• January 3, 2011 — Heyman: Yankees Might Consider Andruw Jones or Johnny Damon

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Carl Crawford, Cliff Lee and Jayson Werth have grabbed all the headlines with their lucrative nine-figure contracts, but many of this off-seasons free agents remain unsigned.

For some players like Adrian Beltre and Rafael Soriano, their big day is a foregone conclusion, but others won’t be so lucky. Whether due to age or declining skills, many players may have to wait until Spring Training to sign a contract, that is, if they can find work.

With that in mind, let’s examine 15 players who could have to wait until March before finding a new home for the season.

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The MLB Hot Stove is in full swing, and a number of significant moves have already been made at the Winter Meetings. That said, there will still be plenty more action before the winter is over, as a number of teams still have glaring needs on their roster.

Looking to the National League, the Nationals already made a splash signing Jayson Werth, but who will be the next NL team to pull the trigger on a big signing?

Here is a look at the biggest needs of all 16 NL teams, and who they could sign to fill the needs among the remaining players on the free agent market.  

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You know, it wasn’t that long ago that Andruw Jones was ruling the NL East alongside his buddy Chipper Jones (no relation).

Andruw played 11 full seasons from 1997-2007 with the Braves after getting a call-up late in the 1996 for the Braves’ playoff push.

In seven of those 11 full seasons, Andruw eclipsed the 30-plus home run mark. Once he hit 41 and another time 51. Andruw was, no doubt, a slugger.

He has a golden bat to go along with his 10 Gold Gloves in center field as well. He has logged 16,215.1 innings in the outfield and recorded 48 errors to his 120 outfield assists. People may forget his bat, but history will remember his defensive presence.

Now, Andruw is in his 30s and is older, slower and fatter.

Being a lifelong Braves fan, an Andruw return would be intriguing for me.

Since leaving the Braves, Jones has played for the Dodgers, Rangers and White Sox. With these clubs he has a batting average of .204 and only 39 home runs in three seasons. What happened?

In 2010, Andruw Jones began to show life again. He went .230 with 19 homers in only 328 at-bats. He also had a reasonable .341 OBP as a result of 45 BBs.

Here is the thing: Atlanta Braves fans can do something other teams can’t. We can look past 2008 to 2010 and see his career with the Braves as evidence of his potential to still be a force to be reckoned with.

Andruw would be a big help in a Braves offense that suffered at the center field position in 2010. Melky Cabrera and Nate McLouth likely could have been one of the worst duos to man center in MLB in 2010. Andruw certainly couldn’t be much worse.

Andruw could be had for cheap. Likely between $1 million to $3 million in 2011 would secure his services.

While he has lost a step, he can still play every outfield position. He is no Gold Glove-winner anymore, but he is a better option than some.

If the Braves signed Andruw, I predict this would be the result:

350 AB, 17 HR, .254 BA, 48 RBI and a .344 OBP.

Not great, but you could do worse for a fourth outfielder. If he starts regularly, you could see even better numbers.

I’d much prefer Scott Podsednik, as mentioned in another article, but Andruw would be a nice story and an investment that could reap big rewards if everything goes correctly.

Come on, Frank Wren—bring Andruw home to Atlanta.

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The Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth becomes a free agent at 12:01 AM ET this Sunday.   

While there is still a chance that Werth may remain in Philadelphia, many doubt that the Phillies will give him the contract that him and his agent Scott Boras are looking for.

Philadelphia’s talented outfielders currently include Raul Ibanez, Shane Victorino and the young Dominic Brown.  

The problem is that Werth provided a right-handed bat to a lineup that is lefty heavy.  Brown, his likely replacement, bats left-handed as well. 

Ibanez is not getting any younger and it is hard to predict his production next year.   

If the Phillies lose Werth, they need to sign or trade for another right-handed outfielder because Ben Francisco is not the answer.

Here are the best five possible fits for the Philadelphia Phillies if Jayson Werth signs with another team.  

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Over the last several years, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ management team of owner Frank McCourt and general manager Ned Colletti have utilized the deferred contract option as a tactic to bring in numerous big name players with highly valued contracts—without paying much up front.

Looking back at several of the players who were still part of the Dodgers payroll in 2010, and who will be receiving paychecks from McCourt into the future, there’s no doubt that many of the deals have failed miserably.

There’s no way of telling exactly what position Frank McCourt is in financially, and just to be competitive, the club may be forced to continue to back-load contracts and pay players deferred cash long after they leave Los Angeles.

Nevertheless, as the 2010 campaign came to an end, some relief began to appear. Six players who were on the team payroll this season, yet never suited up in Dodger Blue, have finally received their last paycheck from Los Angeles. Now, these funds can finally be utilized to fill in a number of gaps on the player roster.

Left-handed starting pitcher Ted Lilly was recently signed to a three-year, $33 million deal, and although the contract was back-loaded, surprisingly no deferred payments exist that will need to be made once the contract expires. This could be a positive sign for the Dodgers, as Colletti and McCourt finally may be realizing how costly several of these deals actually were.

Still, the offseason is young, and the verdict is out on McCourt and Colletti. It’s already been announced that the team payroll will be increased, but it’s unknown by how much. Yet it is possible that with all the right moves, the Dodgers may find themselves in a position to improve upon a very dreadful year.

The following slides show all nine players who weren’t part of the team in 2010 yet still received paychecks signed by McCourt. Several are finally cleared from the payroll, and while a few will continue to be paid into the future, there is a bit of relief in sight in terms of overall dollars. 

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Sometimes certain things can seem so obvious that we don’t think they even need to be said, or, for that matter, justified.

In the most recent Bleacher Report Featured Columnists Poll, the Bleacher Report Featured Columnists for baseball were asked to weigh in on the chances of certain current players for the Hall of Fame.  I participated in this poll and voted against the induction of Andruw Jones without giving it much thought.

Reading the article, and its comments after the results of the poll were published, I was kind of surprised to find that most people’s opinions of Jones and his credentials for the Hall centered around the value of his once-in-a-lifetime defense in center field and deceptively low-value offensive contributions compared to the brevity of his career.

The reason I was kind of surprised was that it quickly became apparent to me that I have been making an assumption about Jones all this time that no one seems to share.

It seems pretty clear to me that Jones absolutely must have been using performance enhancing drugs during the course of his career.

Am I really the only person who thinks this?

First, consider the timing of Jones’ career.  

He debuted in 1996 and played his first full season in 1997. The year he debuted was the year that we all now know Ken Caminiti won the NL MVP while using steroids, and that we all assume Brady Anderson hit 50 home runs while using steroids.  

His rookie year came one year before Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa “saved baseball” by chasing Roger Maris’ single season home run record.  We now know McGwire was using steroids at the time, and we assume Sosa was.

Suffice it to say, Jones came of age during the absolute peak of the steroid/performance enhancing drug era.  In that sense alone, “guilt by association” is enough to at least start the conversation.

Second, let’s look at his offensive performance over the years.

When Jones debuted with the Atlanta Braves in 1996, he hit five home runs and stole three bases in 31 games at the age of 19-years-old.  Over the next four seasons, he would average 28 home runs and 23 stolen bases each year.  

By the age of 23, he had 116 home runs and 95 stolen bases, and looked to be on pace to become one of the greatest power/speed combinations of all time.

But then something odd happened.  In 2001, at the age of 24, he stole only 11 bases while hitting 34 home runs.  Then, at the age of 25, he stole only eight bases while hitting 35 home runs.  

By the age of 26—by no means old and at a point where most players are only entering their prime—Jones had completely lost the speed element of his game and become exclusively a power hitter.

From the age of 25 to 27, Jones hit 100 home runs and stole 18 bases.  A transformation had taken place.

The transformation continued over the next two years.  In 2005, the 28-year-old Jones had his career year, hitting 51 home runs to lead the NL, along with a league leading 128 RBI.  In 2006, Jones hit 41 more home runs, for a two year total of 92, and drove in 129 RBI.  

At the same time, he almost completely stopped stealing bases, amassing only nine over two years.

Jones showed the same metamorphosis from a player with good power and good speed to a player with great power and no speed that we have come to associate with steroids: Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Brady Anderson, and Sammy Sosa 

At the same time, though, relying on such evidence as the increase in home runs and the decrease in stolen bases is, of course, ludicrously circumstantial and nearly disingenuous. And were his home runs and stolen base numbers the only numbers of his to draw conclusions from, this would be a silly exercise.

But there is one other factor that, to me, points inexorably towards Jones having used steroids: the fact that he fell off the cliff at the age of 30.  

In 2007, coming off a two year stretch in which he had 92 home runs, 257 RBI, 202 runs scored, and 637 total bases, Jones simply stopped producing.

At 30 years of age, one of the most dynamic players in baseball, one of the best athletes of the previous 10 years, suddenly looked like he was 40-years-old.

In that 2007 season, Jones’ numbers fell across the board.  Sure, some of these declines were subtle; he still hit 26 home runs and finished with 94 RBI and 83 runs scored.  He still took 70 walks and hit 27 doubles.  

But let’s go deeper.

From 1998 to 2006, Jones’ WAR dropped below 4.8 only once, and for the most part, it stayed in the 5-to-7 range.  In 2007, it was 1.5.

In 1997, Jones posted a 93 OPS+, but after that season it dropped below 110 only once, and his OPS+ in 2005 and 2006 were the best and third best of his career. In 2007, his OPS+ was 87.

Jones had never been a great hitter, but his lifetime average through 2006 was .267, and from 2004 to 2006 he hit .261, .263, and .262.  In 2007 he hit .222.

Again, all of this is circumstantial; 2007 could have just been an injury year.  Except he hasn’t been back.

Over the last three years Jones has been a part time player when he’s played at all.  He hit .158 in 75 games for the Dodgers in 2008.  He hit .214 with 17 home runs playing for the Rangers in 2009—in a ballpark where anybody can hit home runs.  This year he is hitting .201 with 15 home runs in another home run friendly park with the White Sox.

More importantly, Jones can’t field any more either.  At one point considered one of the greatest defensive center fielders of all time, Jones hasn’t been suitable to play center since 2008, when he played 66 miserable games there.  In 2009, he DH’ed for 53 of the 82 games he played, and in 2010 he has played most of his games in right field.

And remember to keep this in mind, as Jones has faded into the twilight of his career over the last three seasons, he has been 31, 32, and 33 years old.  This is precisely the type of career arc we saw from guys like Anderson, Caminiti, and Juan Gonzalez. Guys we either know or assume used steroids.

Frankly, watching a limber, athletic, once-in-a-lifetime talent turn into a bloated, oafish, lumbering player with no apparent skills at the age of 30, when most players are in their prime, leads me directly to the following conclusion:

There can be no doubt that Andruw Jones used steroids during his career, and there can be no doubt that his body is paying the price for it now.

And there is no way a player like Jones gets into the Hall of Fame.

Frankly, I’m just surprised it had to be said.

Asher B. Chancey lives in Philadelphia and is a co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com.

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It’s safe to say that Andruw Jones has been one of the most disappointing baseball players in recent memory.

Just five years ago, Jones was in the middle of a fantastic season wherein he hit 51 homers with a .922 OPS (despite a .240 BABIP) and was worth 8.3 WAR. As recently as 2007, he slammed 26 long balls while driving in 94 and accumulating 3.8 WAR.

Then disaster struck.

In 2008, after signing a two-year, $36 million with the Dodgers, Jones absolutely tanked, hitting just .158 with three homers and a .505 OPS; he struck out in more than a third of his at-bats and his once prodigious power disappeared, as evidenced by his Michael Bourn-esque .091 ISO.

In the 160 games Jones has played with the Rangers and White Sox in 2009-10, he’s regained some of his lost power, bashing 32 homers with a .244 ISO in just under 600 plate appearances. However, those numbers don’t seem particularly special for a guy who’s spent the majority of his time at first base and DH, especially when combined with a putrid .209 batting average. No one’s mistaking him for an All-Star.

And yet, there is no doubt that Andruw Jones belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Wait, what?

For starters, let’s not be too hasty and dismiss his earlier offensive accomplishments. In 12 years with the Braves, he averaged 33 homers and 98 RBI per 162 games with an .824 OPS. He hit the 20/20 club three times, including his 31/27 season in 1998.

His 403 career homers put him 46th all-time, ahead of current Cooperstown residents Al Kaline (399), Jim Rice (382), Ralph Kiner (369), and Albert Pujols (okay, so he’s not in the Hall of Fame yet, but I’m sure they’re already molding his bust). And while 31 was a tad on the young side for a complete collapse, don’t forget that he had established himself as a key part of the Braves outfield before he was old enough to drink.

But all of that is just icing on the cake.

Forget everything he did at the plate, on the base paths, or in the dugout; if for no other reason, Andruw Jones deserves to be enshrined because of what he did in center field.

Jones isn’t just one of the best defensive outfielders of his generation—he’s arguably the best-fielding outfielder of all time, and surely ranks among the top glovesmen in baseball history at any position.

Jones won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1998-2007. Even opening it up to players who were honored in multiple, nonconsecutive years, that beats Ichiro (nine), Torii Hunter (nine), Andre Dawson (eight), Jim Edmonds (eight), Larry Walker (seven), and Kenny Lofton (four).

The only outfielders who have ever done better are Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente (12 each), but I’m sure you’ll join me in condoning Jones for not quite living up to their lofty standard.

Of course, you could argue that Gold Gloves are a popularity contest, and aren’t necessarily the best way to determine the game’s best defenders (see Matt Kemp and Derek Jeter last year).

It’s true, they don’t accurately describe Jones’ accomplishments—they don’t do them justice.

According to TotalZone (used for seasons from 1954-2001) and Ultimate Zone Rating (2002-now), statistics that use batted-ball type and location data to quantify a fielder’s contribution to his team, contribution to his team, Jones has saved 274.3 runs in his career with his glove—that’s about 28 wins worth of value for his career without taking into account anything he’s done with his bat.

If that number isn’t terribly impressive to you, perhaps you should consider the context—it’s the best score of any outfielder in baseball history, and a look at the Top 10 shows that it’s not particularly close:

These statistics are far from perfect, and there’s definitely an argument to be made that the older numbers are particularly flawed. But even if we can’t use it to compare players of different eras (could the margin of error really be more than 70 runs?), we can see just how amazing Jones has been by comparing him to his contemporaries.

If you noticed that the only other names of those 10 who played at the same time as Jones were Bonds (whose days as a serviceable fielder were numbered by the time Jones made his debut) and the woefully unappreciated Jordan, you can probably see where this is going.

Then there’s Darin Erstad’s 146.6. There’s Ichiro’s 120.2, Carl Crawford’s 119.8, Kenny Lofton’s 114.5, Mike Cameron’s 110.7, Larry Walker’s 86.0, and Jim Edmonds’ 57.5.

None of them even come close. In fact, Jones’ score is better than any two of those names’ combined.

It’s not just outfielders, either. Jones’ TZR/UZR is the second best of all-time, trailing only Brooks Robinson. Compare his 274.3 runs saved with Cal Ripken Jr.’s 181.0, Ivan Rodriguez’ 156.0, Luis Aparicio’s 149.0, and Omar Vizquel’s 136.4.

He even beats true defensive legends like Joe Tinker (180.0), Honus Wagner (85.0), and the amazing Ozzie Smith (239.0). If you can go toe-to-toe with the “Wizard of Oz” in the field, you barely need a pulse offensively to deserve a place in Cooperstown.

Jones hasn’t had time to slowly build up his score by being a consistently solid fielder; instead, he grabbed the bull by the horns and has enjoyed some of the best individual defensive seasons in baseball history.

In 1998, at age 21, he was worth 35 runs in the field, which at the time was tied for the second-best defensive performance since tracking began in 1950. In 1999, he promptly went out and beat that, earning 36 TZR.

All told, he appears on the Top 80 list for single-season TZR five times. And that’s not including UZR, which has been kinder to him than TZR since 2003.

Will the Baseball Writers Association of America vote him in when his time comes? Probably not. Even assuming the voters have learned how to use the newfangled defensive metrics by then (far from a sure thing, given that a majority of NL Cy Young voters implicitly declared wins to be the most important pitching statistic last year), there are too many reasons for them to doubt his candidacy.

While TZR and UZR make sense and are great tools for getting a general idea of a player’s defensive prowess, they’re too inconsistent for fans to take as the word of God (though, in my opinion, a 70-run lead is more than enough to cancel out the margin of error).

Aside from that, you’ve got a free-swinging, power-hitting outfielder (a dime a dozen over the last 20 years) who fell off a cliff right before his 32nd birthday. He’d have to return to his younger form and maintain it for at least a few more years in order to have a realistic shot at Cooperstown.

But, as the Beatles song goes, “All you need is glove,” unless I heard that wrong.

And that’s what Ozzie Smith proved when he got more than 90 percent of the vote for the Hall of Fame in 2002. Combine phenomenal defense with a solid bat (remember those 403 homers?), and there’s no question Andruw Jones deserves a spot in Cooperstown.

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The White Sox have won ten games in a row, which is their longest winning streak since 1976. When I wrote my article just over a month ago, I was about to give up on the White Sox, but they have proved me wrong and I will now react to my past article .

Five Reason to Give Up

1. Gordon Beckham

Still in the sophomore slump, even though it seems like he is having good at-bats. Beckham will most likely be platooned with Omar Vizquel at second once Mark Teahan comes off the disabled list. Not a reason to give up, but the freshman phenom needs to work out his issues.

2. Bench Players

Vizquel is coming around, hitting over .350 during the current winning streak and the 43-year-old is playing like he is ten years younger. Ramon Castro has done his job as the backup catcher. Newcomer Dayan Viciedo is showing some promise, but as we know from the past, it is only a matter of time before opposing teams figure him out. Brent Lillbridge is back in the bigs with Jayson Nix being picked up by the Indians off waivers, but he has yet to make an impact. Mark Kotsay is starting to come around, but he has not solidified the DH spot that he held on Opening Day. Andruw Jones has been in and out of the lineup and has been struggling lately. No reason to give up because they have done their job especially since the injury to Teahan.

3. Inconsistent Starting Pitching

Not an issue anymore. Starting pitching has given the Sox a chance to win, with all of the starters going at least six innings each start. Enough said. Pitching has gone as was expected before the season started.

4. Lead-off Hitter

Juan Pierre has come around to be the best lead-off hitter since Scott Podsednik for the Sox. He has done his job and even the experiment with Jones leading off for the first time since 1988 may have lit a fire under Pierre. Still a weak spot, but Pierre is doing his best to make it stand out less.

5. Bobby Jenks

Converted the last 12 save opportunities and has been a workhorse. No need for Sox fans to cry for J.J. Putz .

Five Reasons to Be Hopeful

1. Speed

Sixty-eight stolen bases through mid-June, including Pierre leading baseball with 27 stolen bases, the runners have been more aggressive on the base paths, and A.J. Pierzynski has been throwing out runners better this year. Still a strength.

2. Paul Konerko

Has raised his average over .300 for the first time this season. He might have only four home runs in the past month, but he has also had key RBI and hits.

3. Andruw Jones

Jones has hit a slump, which has given him scattered starts and has transitioned to more of a situational pinch hitter, but he needs to prove himself to get back in the everyday lineup. May not be a hopeful point much more, but I could see him turning it around.

4. Alex Rios

.313 BA, 13 HR, 38 RBI, 20 SB, .546 SLG. He has been the most consistent player in the lineup. Enough said.

5. Bullpen

Jenks is back to closer form. Sergio Santos , Tony Pena , Matt Thornton , and Putz are all going strong. Still the best group for the Sox this year.

The Sox are in a good streak, so let’s see what happens when division play continues.

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