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We spend a lot of time early in the free-agent season discussing good fits and where players would like to go. And then it still almost always comes down to which team offers the most money.

It probably will with Johnny Cueto, too, but in his case, maybe it shouldn’t. Well, maybe it should, if the team that offers the most money is the San Francisco Giants.

Cueto and the Giants feel like the ultimate good fit, especially from the pitcher’s standpoint. And if there’s any player on this winter’s free-agent market who should be shopping for the best fit, it’s Johnny Cueto.

The Giants may well favor Zack Greinke, and as I wrote a couple of weeks back, he would be a great fit for them. Cueto wouldn’t be a bad second choice for them—and they would be a great first choice for him.

With their pitcher-friendly ballpark and their pitcher-friendly combo of manager Bruce Bochy and Dave Righetti, the Giants would be a nice, comfortable choice for any pitcher. But if there’s one pitcher this winter who seems to thrive on comfort, it’s Cueto.

Remember in the World Series, when the Kansas City Royals arranged their rotation with the main goal of making sure Cueto would only pitch at home? The Royals said publicly they believed Cueto could pitch anywhere but acknowledged privately they had an ultra-sensitive ace who responds best in an environment where he’s comfortable.

Sure enough, Cueto pitched like a no-doubt ace twice during October, both times in crucial games—both times in his Kauffman Stadium comfort zone. He beat the Houston Astros there in Game 5 of the division series and was even better in his World Series Game 2 complete-game win over the New York Mets.

The Royals traded for Cueto as a rental ace, and those two wins justified the price they paid. They’ll let him move on now, fine for him because while Kauffman Stadium was a great place for him to pitch, the American League as a whole wasn’t.

So now he’s a free agent, in a market heavy on starting pitchers but featuring just two true aces in David Price and Zack Greinke. Or maybe it’s three aces, if you can count Cueto.

You can count him, if he’s the guy we all saw in the World Series. You can count him, if he’s the guy whose National League ERA since the start of the 2011 season is 2.51, second to Clayton Kershaw (2.11) and better than Zack Greinke (2.75) and Madison Bumgarner (3.05), among others.

Remember, Cueto made half of those starts in homer-friendly Great American Ball Park, where he’s the only guy to survive at least 10 career starts with an ERA under 3.00.

Imagine what he could do at AT&T Park. Or instead of imagining, check out Cueto‘s three career starts in San Francisco, where he pitched 21.1 innings and allowed just four earned runs (a 1.69 ERA) and 14 hits.

We’ve gotten a long way into this without mentioning Cueto‘s health, not because it’s not an issue, but simply because we don’t really know. His agent made the point that he looked plenty healthy in that World Series win over the Mets, but the Giants or any other interested team will want assurances from their own medical staff before proceeding.

The whispers about his elbow have been around for months and gained steam when the Cincinnati Reds pushed back a couple of Cueto‘s starts early in the season. He was still able to top 200 innings for the third time in four years and was able to make all his starts in October without any hint of health issues.

Cueto‘s October included those two outstanding starts against the Astros and Mets, but also that total clunker in Game 3 of the ALCS in Toronto. He seemed overly concerned about possible sign-stealing, just as he had seemed to get overly rattled by the sing-song “Cue-to! Cue-to!” chants during the 2013 National League Wild Card Game in Pittsburgh.

If you’re shopping for an ace who will command the type of money Cueto will likely get (Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com predicted a six-year, $144 million contract), maybe you want a guy who doesn’t get rattled. But every free agent comes with warts. Price is going to get more money than any free-agent pitcher on the market, and he has never won a postseason start.

Cueto had two huge wins just last month. Put him in his comfort zone, and he can pitch like a true ace.

Put him with the Giants in AT&T Park, and he can earn that title.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball. 

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Good morning/afternoon/evening, MLB offseason shoppers. While you’re browsing the ace section—ogling a Zack Greinke, drooling over a David Price, maybe checking the sticker on a Stephen Strasburg—can we interest you in something else?

Like, say, a 28-year-old right-hander who racked up 212 strikeouts in 196 innings with a 3.26 ERA last season and is under team control through 2017?

What’s that? Your interest is piqued? Well, step right up and take a gander at Tyson Ross.

The San Diego Padres stud hasn’t received the buzz that’s swirled around the big free-agent aces, such as Price, Greinke and Johnny Cueto, or the prime (potential) trade targets, including Strasburg and the New York Mets‘ Matt Harvey.

Hype is hard to quantify, of course. And Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer did slot Ross at No. 19 on his list of the winter’s top 100 free agents and trade targets. But when you scan that collection of coveted arms again, doesn’t Ross feel like the guy you’ve heard the least about?

Still, he’s got the stuff and recent track record to belong in that elite group. And the Friars are indeed “shopping” him, according to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.

It’d take a sparkling package of prospects, possibly even sparklier than the one the Boston Red Sox sent to San Diego to acquire closer Craig Kimbrel. But it’d be worth it.

Ross debuted with the Oakland A’s in 2010 and has spent three seasons with the Padres, so his profile isn’t as high as it would have been had he been doing his thing in New York, Boston or even up the freeway in Los Angeles.

But make no mistake: This is one of the most talented pitchers in baseball, and he’s ripe for the picking.

After flashing promise, Ross truly broke out in 2014, posting a 2.81 ERA with 195 strikeouts in 195.2 innings and making his first All-Star team.

Last season, he battled command issues and coughed up an MLB-leading 84 walks. But he also averaged an eye-opening, career-best 9.73 strikeouts per nine innings. And if you like WAR, his mark of 4.4 was likewise a career high, per FanGraphs.

Ross is, simply put, the kind of big, bat-missing talent any general manager with a hole near the top of his rotation would covet.

Before the Kimbrel deal was consummated, a Ross trade was “discussed heavily” between the Red Sox and Padres, per Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan. Even now, Ross-to-Beantown isn’t an impossibility, as Boston has plenty of trade chips left in its enviably deep farm system.

The Chicago Cubs tried to land Ross at the 2015 trade deadline, as Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reported at the time, and have the pieces to pursue him now.

Really, all of the clubs that are reported to be in on Greinke and Price figure to at least inquire about Ross. That’s a list that includes, but is by no means limited to, the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants.

And unlike the aforementioned Strasburg and Harvey, a Ross trade feels like more than wild hot-stove speculation.

Here’s an interesting wrinkle: As Rosenthal noted, the Pads are also shopping outfielder Matt Kemp, who played 154 games last year and drove in 100 runs but has been plagued by injuries and is owed gobs of cash through 2019.

It’s possible San Diego would consider a slightly less robust return for Ross if another club was willing to eat Kemp’s onerous contract as well.

Really, though, all of this hinges on whether the Kimbrel-to-Boston trade, along with the deal that sent setup man Joaquin Benoit to the Seattle Mariners, is the start of an all-out fire sale. 

It might not be, as Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune outlined:

That Ross trade talk? Know that a contract extension is part of the discussion in the front office, as is listening when teams call on a 28-year-old right-hander with two more years of control.

Because, of course, they’re gonna call.

So Padres general manager A.J. Preller is weighing his options. After going all-in last winter and watching the Friars finish a disappointing fourth in the National League West, Preller has to decide if he wants to tinker, reload or blow it all up and start over.

“We have some flexibility financially looking at the free-agent market,” Preller told Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller after the Kimbrel trade. “We’re looking to be a championship organization, and this gives us a chance to move some money around and invest in different areas, and we’re looking forward to doing that.”

That’s a cagey, politician’s non-answer and leaves all doors open. Really, it might behoove Preller to hang on to Ross until next winter, when he will still have a year left before free agency and the pool of available arms will be much shallower. 

But if Preller does press the rebuild button now, Ross will rocket to the top of a lot of GMs‘ wish lists. 

The shelves may be sagging with aces, but this is one prize MLB’s winter shoppers can’t afford to overlook.

All statistics and contract information current as of Nov. 19 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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At times, it appears as though the Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse is full of egos running amok, full of tension between players that has prevented the team from achieving greater success on the field.

Three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw has rarely been associated with such supposed dissension. Yet rumors floated Thursday that the face of the team—and perhaps all of baseball—wants embattled outfielder Yasiel Puig out of the Dodgers organization.   

Andy Van Slyke, former major leaguer and father of current Dodgers outfielder Scott Van Slyke, told Frank Cusumano of CBS Sports Radio 920 in St. Louis (h/t CBS Sports‘ Dayn Perry) such may be the case:

This is just between you and I. When the best player—the highest paid player on the Los Angeles Dodgers—goes to the GM and—is asked what are [the needs of the Los Angeles Dodgers], this particular highest-paid player said, ‘The first thing you need to do is get rid of Puig.’ That’s all you need to know.

Van Slyke didn’t specify Kershaw by name—referring instead to “the highest-paid player,” but the implication was clear.

Puig is one of the most athletic players in the majors, with the power of a linebacker and the arm of a quarterback. Dodgers legendary broadcaster Vin Scully aptly refers to him as a “wild horse,” a remarkable talent who sometimes suffers as a risk-taker. That all-out playing style ended up costing him nearly half of last season because of injury.

The Dodgers are coming off their third straight disappointing finish and are currently without a manager after the club parted ways with former skipper Don Mattingly in late October. 

At face value, this all seems irregular for Kershaw, who’s known to consistently speak the truth but always with optimism. Even when the Dodgers’ clubhouse dysfunction reached a public level in 2014, Kershaw never threw his teammates under the bus. 

Perhaps the former MVP does want Puig gone, but it’ll be up to team president Andrew Friedman and the rest of the Los Angeles front office to make a decision.

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In the span of eight days, Brandon Crawford became the most decorated San Francisco Giants shortstop in franchise history, and he also became its richest.

Already holding two World Series rings in his pocket, the 28-year-old Crawford added an unexpected Gold Glove award and an expected Silver Slugger trophy within the last week in the same season in which he made his first National League All-Star team.

The year got even better Tuesday when Crawford and the Giants, the team he wildly cheered for as a kid, agreed to a six-year, $75 million contract extension, per Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, making him an organizational pillar well into his 30s. The deal buys out Crawford’s last two arbitration years and four free-agent seasons, making him a Giant through age 34 and a potential bargain for the Giants.

Giants general manager Bobby Evans had this to say, per MLB.com:

Brandon is an exceptionally talented baseball player who has earned this through his hard work, dedication and competitive spirit. He took great strides both offensively and defensively last season, winning his first-ever Gold Glove and Silver Slugger award. This is a great day for Brandon and his family, for the Giants and for our fans.

Crawford had been a defense-first shortstop through his first four seasons, compiling just a 91 OPS+, but he has been among the very best glovemen at his position. He ranks third among major league shortstops in defensive runs saved since 2011, according to Fangraphs, despite playing in just 66 games that season, his rookie year.

Had Crawford continued to be a defensive whiz, the Giants certainly could have lived with him at the position for the foreseeable future.

But in 2015, his bat caught up with his glove, as he set career bests in batting average (.256), runs (65), doubles (33), home runs (21), RBI (84), OPS (.782), OPS+ (114) and wRC+ (117). He also had the best Baseball-Reference WAR (5.6) and the best Fangraphs WAR (3.1) of his career.

It is this breakout season that pushed the Giants to lock up Crawford, realizing he has become a premier player at a premium position. The year also put him in elite Giants company, with Crawford becoming the first Giant since Barry Bonds in 1997 to win a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger in the same season.

Tentative breakdown on Brandon Crawford’s contract: $1.2M signing bonus, $5.8M next year, $8M in 2017, then $15M in subsequent 4 years.

— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) November 18, 2015

The deal could end up being a huge win for the Giants. Neither the Marcel nor the Steamer projection systems see Crawford duplicating his offensive prowess in 2016, but if he exceeds their expectations for the next few seasons and can remain a quality defensive player, he will be paid well below market value for a player of his sudden ilk.

To compare, Los Angeles Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons is the superior defender at the position and, until last season, was a comparable offensive player to Crawford. The Atlanta Braves signed him to a seven-year, $58 million extension before the 2014 season, which at the time was the largest average annual value ever for a player with one-plus years of major league service time.

The Baltimore Orioles signed J.J. Hardy, who is not as good as Crawford defensively and was nowhere close to him offensively in 2015, to a three-year, $40 million deal before the 2015 season.

And the king of the shortstop paydays, Troy Tulowitzki, is not as good as Crawford defensively and had major Coors Field splits while with the Colorado Rockies. He signed a 10-year, $157.75 million contract in 2010.

This offseason, Ian Desmond, who struggled majorly on defense this past year (27 errors) but could be better with the bat going forward, could get north of $75 million as a 30-year-old.

ZiPS thinks the Crawford extension is fair, but I still think I rather have the 2 years of arbitration rather than the 6 year deal.

— Dan Szymborski (@DSzymborski) November 17, 2015

The deal could always end up as just a “meh” kind of deal for the Giants if Crawford were to revert back to the below-average offensive player he had been before 2015. Not to mention the team entered into extension talks when Crawford’s stock might never be higher.

Even if Crawford starts to regress in the next three seasons, it’s possible the Giants could still be getting him at a reasonable price if he is a league-average hitter and remains a strong defender. It’s the last three years, the age-32-34 seasons, for which the Giants might end up overpaying.

That is the part that makes the no-trade clause baffling. The $15 million a year he will be owed could end up burdensome, but a team like the Giants certainly can absorb that if Crawford ends up a below-average shortstop in the second half of the deal.

Crawford’s breakout season put him right in line for this extension, and the Giants, banking on his continued offensive production, were willing to negotiate with him from a position of minimal leverage. That is how much Crawford potentially means to the franchise, especially as it enters its lucky even-year season.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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It appears San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller is back to his old tricks.

After making a series of blockbuster trades last offseason, Preller just made two trades in two days, acquiring middle infielder Jose Pirela from the New York Yankees and shipping Joaquin Benoit to the Seattle Mariners.

While these November deals don’t grab the headlines the way that some of the aggressive GM’s trades have in the past, they still point to the fact that Preller is quickly getting to work.

But how do you fix a team that has multiple holes and is coming off one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history? Where do you even begin?

As MLB Network analyst Tom Verducci said on MLB Now, the Padres’ plan is anyone’s guess.

On paper, the Benoit trade seems like a bit of a head-scratcher. Why trade away one of your most dependable relief options when your team ranked 23^rd in the majors in bullpen ERA last season?

Clearly, as Ron Darling alluded to in the video above, Preller is looking to get younger and more balanced. After trading away so many prospects last offseason, it is a very smart move to attempt to retool the farm system. 

Obtaining 19-year-old right-handed pitcher Enyel De Los Santos and 23-year-old middle infielder Nelson Ward in exchange for Benoit certainly helps in restocking the system.

But given Preller’s track record with trades, some people, including San Diego Union-Tribune Padres beat writer Dennis Lin, remain weary of the trigger-happy Preller:

What makes the Benoit deal all the more confounding is that, as MLB.com executive correspondent Richard Justice points out in the MLB video below, most people think the Padres are still in win-now mode. Isn’t that what the Matt Kemp acquisition was all about?

In an interview on MLB Network’s Hot Stove on Thursday, Preller said that the front office is going to remain aggressive in the international market while seeking infield support. 

“It’s no secret we are out there looking for help, specifically at shortstop,” Preller told Matt Vasgersian. “You’re always looking for guys who can make you strong up the middle.”

While shortstop Andrelton Simmons is no longer available after being acquired by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim via trade on Thursday, there are some veteran-type players available on the free-agent market such as Asdrubal Cabrera, Alexei Ramirez and Jimmy Rollins.

Either middle infielder would be an improvement over current option Alexi Amarista, who hit only .204 last season with an OBP of .257. In five years, he is a .227 career hitter.

As the Simmons trade shows, obtaining an elite shortstop in a deal means sacrificing a ton in exchange. Given the current state of the Padres farm system, it may be more advisable to seek upgrades via free agency instead.

Another issue that needs to get addressed this offseason is the Padres’ lack of depth in the rotation. There’s also the fact that their lineup is too right-handed heavy, as Preller points out during the Hot Stove interview.

A one-two combo of James Shields and Tyson Ross at the top of the rotation is formidable, but who is going to fill the No. 4 and No. 5 spots after Andrew Cashner’s turn? 

Right-handed starter Ian Kennedy rejected the Padres’ qualifying offer on Friday and will become a free agent, as expected. Meanwhile, internal options seem meek and inexperienced.

Look for Preller to explore outside talent, either by trade or free agency, for one or two additional starters, especially a lefty.

As for left-handed bats, the Padres got a bit of bad news on Friday when outfielder Colby Rasmus accepted the Houston Astros‘ $15.8 million qualifying offer to return to the club in 2016.

The lefty power hitter would have been a good fit for the Padres post-Justin Upton lineup. On the final day of the 2015 season, the Padres scorecard featured only two left-handed hitters, Amarista and Travis Jankowski. 

After the Padres ended up winning three fewer games (77) than they did in 2014, there is a lot of work to be done for Preller and Co.

Beyond Craig Kimbrel, the bullpen is one serious weak spot.

Beyond Shields, Ross and Cashner, the rotation has holes as well.

On the offensive side, San Diego is hoping to get a boost from a healthy Wil Myers, but they still lack an impact left-handed bat to balance the lineup and make it more difficult for opposing pitchers to match up against.

As Verducci alluded to in the video above, it’s tough to decipher where Preller is going with this thing. It is still extremely early in the offseason, and we don’t have much to go off of, but if last year was any indication, he may be very active again.

As for whether that means dealing more major league talent (such as Benoit) away, or adding a couple big names via trade, we will just have to wait and see. 

Similar to the Oakland Athletics’ Billy Beane, Preller has emerged as one of the most unpredictable GMs in the game.

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Coming off his most productive season in years, Brett Anderson has decided to stick with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, Anderson has accepted the Dodgers’ qualifying offer. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports confirmed that Anderson would be taking the one-year guarantee.

Under terms of the qualifying-offer system, per Doug Miller of MLB.com, players who accept will make $15.8 million in 2016.

Anderson has been one of the biggest cautionary tales in MLB for years. The left-hander has always shown great ability when healthy, but injuries had prevented him from making 20 starts in a season for five consecutive years before 2015.

Last year, starting a career-high 31 games for the Dodgers, Anderson proved that he has a lot left in the tank.

Even though Anderson doesn’t miss bats the way he used to, he has always generated a lot of ground balls, and last season was his best year in that regard. His 66.3 percent rate in 2015 was nearly 5 percent better than any other starting pitcher in the majors, per FanGraphs.

Speaking to Mark Saxon of ESPN.com in March, Anderson talked about why his ability to keep the ball on the ground is such a critical part of his game. 

“When I was younger and throwing harder, I’d strike more people out. Obviously, you have to evolve,” Anderson said. “As I’ve gotten older and had some of the injuries, I don’t throw quite as hard, but that’s part of pitching and part of being in the big leagues for a little while now.”

The Dodgers put Anderson in a situation where he doesn’t have to lead the rotation like he did in Oakland and Colorado because Clayton Kershaw is the staff ace. The team faces uncertainty behind Kershaw next season, with Zack Greinke opting out of his deal and Brandon McCarthy set to miss the start of 2016 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. 

The 27-year-old Anderson will continue to be a volatile pitcher until he builds a track record of staying healthy, but the Dodgers can expect another solid season after his work in 2015, securing much-needed rotation depth.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers are in the market for starting pitching, and word is they’re willing to go big. They either want to re-sign Zack Greinke or, failing that, sign David Price instead.

But here’s a crazy notion: Why not both Greinke and Price? And by “crazy,” we of course actually mean “plausible and very much worthwhile.”

First, let’s be clear that signing both Greinke and Price doesn’t appear to be the Dodgers’ goal. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports has reported that they’re the top two free agents on the Dodgers’ radar but that there’s only an either/or thing going on. Greinke is their top target, and Price is their “fallback option.”

You can understand why the Dodgers feel they only need to sign one of them. They’re coming off a year in which their starting rotation’s excellent 3.24 ERA had a big hand in delivering a 92-70 record and a third straight NL West title. At the heart of that success was the unrivaled duo of Clayton Kershaw and Greinke, who combined for a 1.94 ERA in nearly 450 innings. 

Re-signing Greinke, who led MLB with a 1.66 ERA, would keep the band together and potentially allow the Dodgers to repeat their 2015 formula in 2016 and beyond. Going for Price, whose 2.45 ERA gave him his second American League ERA title, could have the same effect.

But if one of them would be good, signing both would obviously be even better. Doing so would cost a lot of money, but…hey, these are the Dodgers we’re talking about here.

Modern times being what they are, there’s no mistaking that Greinke and Price are both in line for gigantic contracts. 

In the wake of the seven-year, $210 million contract that Max Scherzer signed last winter, the price for elite starting pitching this winter will be at least $30 million per year. Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors is probably right on in predicting that Price, 30, will sign for seven years and $217 million and that Greinke, 32, will sign for five years and $156 million.

If that’s where Greinke and Price end up, they’ll both be on the hook for $31 million per year. So, if the Dodgers were to ink both, they could be adding a little over $60 million to their 2016 payroll. That’s a lot of money for two players. 

But too much? Maybe not for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers ultimately spent $310 million on payroll in 2015. As of now, Cot’s Baseball Contracts has them on the hook for about $155 million in salary commitments for 2016, and MLB Trade Rumors has them projected to pay about $35 million in arbitration. That adds up to roughly $190 million.

If the Dodgers add Greinke and Price at their projected rates, they’d only be raising their 2016 commitments to $250 million. That’s well short of where they can go, giving them room to make more additions even after dropping a couple king’s ransoms on the kings of the free-agent pitching market.

And this is without even assuming that the Dodgers could backload Greinke‘s and Price’s contracts so that the real money doesn’t kick in until later. With the club’s guaranteed salary commitments set to fall below $100 million as soon as 2018, that’s something they could do.

Another thing to keep in mind: signing Greinke and Price would only cost the Dodgers money.

The Dodgers made Greinke a qualifying offer, and his inevitable rejection of it will tie him to draft pick compensation. But if it’s the Dodgers who sign him, their first-round pick in 2016 (No. 25) will remain theirs. And because Price was traded in 2015, he was barred from receiving a qualifying offer. Ergo, signing both of them would not hinder the Dodgers’ ability to keep adding young talent via the draft.

In all, we have how the Dodgers can sign both Greinke and Price. Now it’s time for the second half of the equation: why they should.

As it has been in previous offseasons, the Dodgers’ goal for this offseason is to make upgrades that will bring them not just more NL West titles, but the elusive World Series title they’ve been hot after ever since Magic Johnson rescued the team from Frank McCourt in 2012.

To do this, the Dodgers could pursue all sorts of options. It’s just hard to think of one better than upgrading their rotation with Greinke and Price.

The Dodgers could upgrade their offense, which may seem like the right idea after it failed them down the stretch in 2015. But President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman said recently, via Eric Stephen of True Blue LA, that he sees the team as being “pretty locked in offensively.” And he’s right.

The Dodgers have solid starters at every position except second base, and what happened at the end of 2015 shouldn’t obscure the fact that there’s plenty of upside to be found in the Dodgers offense. The Dodgers had an elite offense early in 2015 and could again if Yasmani Grandal and Yasiel Puig can stay healthy and young guns Joc Pederson and Corey Seager make good on their potential.

The Dodgers could also upgrade their bullpen, which hasn’t featured a solid bridge to the excellent Kenley Jansen in any of the last three seasons. But outside of Darren O’Day—who ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick says already has the Dodgers’ attention—the free-agent relief market is very thin. Most of the action is on the trade market, where there aren’t many sensible targets for the Dodgers.

As much as the Dodgers would probably love to have Aroldis Chapman, their young pitching (i.e. Julio Urias and Jose De Leon) may not appeal to a Cincinnati Reds team that needs young position players. Moving young talent to the San Diego Padres for Craig Kimbrel could backfire in the future. Andrew Miller is available, but Heyman writes that it may take an ace pitcher to land him from the New York Yankees. At present, the Dodgers only have one of those. And he’s, uh, not available.

So, behold. We’re left looking at Door No. 3: the Dodgers rotation.

If nothing else, the Dodgers rotation needs depth. Kershaw is still on top and is still awesome. But after him, Alex Wood is the Dodgers’ only healthy established starter. After him come Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy, who are both coming off significant injuries.

If the Dodgers were to sign Greinke and Price, they’d be making depth a much more minor concern and, more importantly, upgrading from an elite rotation duo to an elite rotation trio.

How good would a trio of Kershaw, Greinke and Price be? Well, it says a lot that Baseball-Reference.com WAR rates them as three of the league’s eight best pitchers since 2013:

Things don’t look much different if you focus strictly on 2015, as Kershaw, Greinke and Price rated as three of the league’s six best pitchers.

In fact, had they been on the same team in 2015, the Dodgers would have been the first team with three starters with ERAs below 2.50 since they did it in 1985. Even more impressive, they would have been only the third team ever with three pitchers worth at least six WAR.

If a Kershaw, Greinke and Price trio becomes a reality, the Dodgers would have a rotation trio that few teams could match up with. This is certainly true of the National League, where the only competitive unit would be the New York Mets‘ trio of Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard. 

And lest anyone doubt that the Dodgers need only arrange an elite rotation trio to have a shot at their elusive World Series title, the Mets are a pretty good example to follow.

The Dodgers were the first team the Mets beat on their way to winning the National League pennant, in part because they got excellent pitching out of deGrom, Harvey and Syndergaard. Evidently, that left an impression on Adrian Gonzalez.

“I definitely think that in this day and age you need three front-line starters to go deep in the playoffs,” said the Dodgers first baseman, via Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times.

Granted, this is debatable. The Kansas City Royals didn’t need three front-line starters to win the World Series. And as Friedman pointed out to Hernandez, the assorted rosters of this year’s postseason were “constructed very differently.”

What the Mets showed, however, is that a roster constructed around an elite starting trio is indeed capable of going deep into the postseason as long as it has the right supporting cast. In their case, that meant an offense defined by its depth and one shutdown reliever (Jeurys Familia).

That’s a blueprint the Dodgers could follow if they put Greinke and Price behind Kershaw. As we discussed, they already have one shutdown reliever in Jansen, and depth will indeed be their offense’s defining feature if it’s blessed with good health and a couple of breakout performances. If this formula worked for the Mets, it could work for the Dodgers.

To go for it, all the Dodgers have to do is hand out a couple hundred million bucks. And, really, what’s that to them?

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Former Washington Nationals manager Matt Williams has accepted his former job as the third-base coach with the Arizona Diamondbacks, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports. 

The D-backs haven’t formally made the announcement of Williams’ hiring, but Steve Gilbert of MLB.com speculated that could come as early as Wednesday:

Williams was the D-backs’ third-base coach from 2010-2013 before taking the Washington Nationals’ managerial job. In Washington, he was the NL Manager of the Year in 2014, but the team fell well short of expectations as unanimous World Series favorites last year, per Odds Shark, which led to his firing on Oct. 5.

The Nationals replaced Williams with Dusty Baker last week, and the team’s NL MVP favorite, Bryce Harper, wasn’t shy in expressing his excitement over the change with a slight jab at Williams’ expense while speaking on MLB Network (h/t Chris Johnson of MASN):    

I think you see that smile on my face. I’m definitely very excited to have him. Being able to play for a guy like Dusty, somebody that’s been there, been around the game for a long, long time.

[…]

I’m very excited to have the team that we do. We finally have an All-Star staff and it’s gonna be a lot of fun.

Williams played 17 seasons in the majors, including his final six with the D-backs in which he was a member of their 2001 World Series team.

The D-backs finished and improved 79-83 in 2015 but still well out of contention in the competitive NL West. They’ve quietly been building to what could be a promising 2016 with young pitching and offense centered around MVP-caliber first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. 

The reunion with Williams may give the D-backs an additional push they need in the clubhouse to make a hopeful run next year. 

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Colorado Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes was arrested Oct. 31 in Hawaii on charges of domestic violence, per Chelsea Davis of Hawaii News Now.

Denver’s 9News posted a copy of Reyes’ mugshot:

KHNL in Hawaii (via Deadspin’s Kevin Draper) reported Reyes shoved his wife into a sliding glass door after grabbing her around the throat at the Four Seasons Hualalai. According to Davis, Reyes posted bail and is out of jail.

The Rockies issued a statement regarding the allegations:

On Tuesday, Major League Baseball released a statement on Reyes’ arrest (via Adam Rubin of ESPN.com):

As evidenced by our Joint Domestic Violence Policy, Major League Baseball understands the seriousness of the issues surrounding domestic violence, and our policy explicitly recognizes the harm resulting from such acts. Consistent with the terms of this policy, the Commissioner’s Office already has begun its investigation into the facts and circumstances. Any action taken by the Commissioner’s Office in this matter will be wholly in accordance with this policy.

After the statement, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters there is no timeline for the investigation.

“Obviously it’s an issue of concern to us,” Manfred said.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports added Reyes can be disciplined for “just cause” without a conviction. Rosenthal also noted Reyes could “be placed on administrative leave for up to seven days in-season.”

The 32-year-old started 2015 with the Toronto Blue Jays, who traded him to the Rockies in a deal that sent Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto in July. Reyes batted .274 with seven home runs, 53 RBI and 24 stolen bases in 116 games.

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Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig suffered through an up-and-down 2015 season and only played in 79 games thanks to two separate stints on the disabled list. He also started only one of the five games in his team’s loss to the New York Mets in the National League Division Series.

President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman believes the outfielder’s weight was one reason for the health issues.

Friedman commented on Puig and the Dodgers’ desire for him to lose that weight in a report by Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times: “That’s a focus. He has continued to get bigger and stronger each year. It may not be the optimal size for him to play 150 games, 150-plus games.”

It is a tricky balance because adding strength would likely result in more power at the plate, but Los Angeles needs the outfielder on the field. Friedman did acknowledge “the reports have been great,” regarding Puig’s regular contact with strength and conditioning coach Brandon McDaniel.

The Dodgers outfield is something of a question mark this offseason after Puig missed so much time with injury (and set career lows with a .255 average, 11 home runs and 38 RBI) and Joc Pederson hit .178 with six home runs after the All-Star break. Pederson drilled 20 home runs in the first half of the season but looked lost at the plate by October.

Hernandez said Los Angeles could look for Puig and Pederson to bounce back in the 2016 season “rather than pursue any offensive difference-makers on the free-agent market.”

The Hernandez article also pointed out Friedman wants to see Puig work on his swing mechanics in addition to his efforts to become leaner (listed at 6’2″, 255 pounds by Baseball-Reference.com).      

Trading Puig is one option during the offseason, but he will only be 25 years old during the 2016 campaign. He is also under club control for three more seasons and recently played 148 games in 2014 and hit .296 with 37 doubles and 16 home runs.   

If he can return to a similar form next year, the Dodgers will be a much more formidable offensive club.

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