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While there are still plenty of familiar names available as free agents, there’s a multitude of reasons those players remain unsigned. Some teams may be scared off by price, while others may not believe that those familiar names represent a significant upgrade over their in-house options at a particular position.

That’s led to an increase in trade chatter and speculation on the rumor mill, which seems to only grow louder with every free-agent signing. In fact, the names being bandied about as potential trade chips are just as familiar and notable—a list that, this week, includes a handful of former All-Stars.

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

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One of the best parts about MLB spring training is getting the chance to watch dark horses like Trayce Thompson and Aaron Sanchez, who will be angling to steal jobs from more-established teammates.

Surveying the bigs, there is an array of low-key guys like Thompson and Sanchez who don’t have the inside track to a regular gig but who have the potential to make it happen.

All of the players who cracked this list offer tremendous upside, and all but one posted superb numbers—either in the minors or the majors—in 2015. They’re all about to be embroiled in big-time position battles this spring.

In the case of Sanchez, he’s not only got the stats to back up his bid but also a vote of confidence from one of his higher-profile teammates.

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It’s been a long winter for Carlos Gonzalez—one of those MLB stars who just can’t seem to shake those pesky trade rumors.

CarGo is the most prominent player left stranded on the block, but he’s got plenty of company from some fellow outfielders who are also twisting in the trade winds. With Yoenis Cespedes finally off the board, there’s reason to believe the trade market for those guys will begin to ramp up.

To figure out the top potential landing spots for each of those bats, we’ve considered two key factors:

• Published reports from throughout the winter
• The remaining needs of the various logical suitors

Outfielders like Gonzalez dominate the list, but there’s also room for one big-time backstop who is not only a top bounce-back candidate but is also playing on a bargain of a salary.

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The MLB landscape has been reshaped by an impressive influx of young talent in recent years, and that wave of star-caliber prospects arriving on the scene figures to continue this coming season.

Even the casual baseball fan knows names such as Corey Seager, Byron Buxton, Lucas Giolito, Julio Urias and Tyler Glasnow, as those five players figure to be atop most prospect ranking lists and should be able to make an immediate impact once they arrive in the big leagues.

However, those five guys are by no means the only minor leaguers currently making their way through the ranks who have legitimate star potential.

Ahead we’ve highlighted five under-the-radar prospects who are not yet household names but who all have the tools to be future superstars as they continue on the developmental path.

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Finally, after much delay, Chris Davis and Justin Upton are off the board, but Yoenis Cespedes has yet to escape his winter purgatory as the MLB offseason draws to a close.

Based on some puzzling comments from the New York Mets’ top decision-maker, it doesn’t sound like a return to Citi Field is in the works. But there is a real chance Cespedes could remain in the National League East in 2016.

Cespedes is easily the most prominent big leaguer who’s left unemployed, but he’s far from the the only quality player who’s still on the job hunt.

Aside from those free-agent question marks, there’s also room in this week’s round of questions and answers for a breakdown of a new big-time trade chip and an examination of all the latest on the Aroldis Chapman front.

Will Jonathan Lucroy Be with the Milwaukee Brewers on Opening Day?

Jonathan Lucroy isn’t afraid to speak his mind.

“I’m not going to sit here and say we’re going to compete for the playoffs this year,” Lucroy told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “If I did that, you’d call me a liar. I’d lose credibility and respect.”

As the backstop went on to admit, “Rebuilding is not a lot of fun for any veteran guy.” The Brew Crew, which dropped 94 contests in 2015 and has been shedding valuable assets at a furious rate, is clearly rebuilding.

But that doesn’t mean jettisoning the 2014 NL All-Star is the ideal way to proceed with the teardown. As Haudricourt argued, moving Lucroy now would be a classic example of “selling low.” Last season, the right-handed hitter posted just a .717 OPS as a busted toe and a concussion derailed his campaign.

The best route for the Brewers would be to slow-play it with the 29-year-old.

What Milwaukee needs to do is let Lucroy regain his 2014 form, which saw him land in the No. 4 spot on the Senior Circuit MVP ballot. The team could then spark a bidding war in July as October contenders jostle to find that final piece.

Based on the numbers, the Seattle Mariners look like a potential summer match. Last season, M’s catchers combined to post some staggeringly bad numbers. As a group, the players were worst in the bigs in categories like average (.159) and OPS (.464).

As Dave Heller of Fox Sports wrote, one complication is that the Mariners have already imported Chris Iannetta to step in behind the plate. Then again, Iannetta hit .188 in 2015, and if there’s one takeaway from Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto’s brief reign in the Pacific Northwest, it’s that the exec loves to make trades.

The Answer: Yes, the team will wait until July to trade him.

Is Aroldis Chapman Going to Get Suspended?

Aroldis Chapman won’t be facing any charges for an alleged domestic dispute from last October, per Ken Davidoff of the New York Post.

As Davidoff reported, here’s the breakdown about how the decision was made: “Broward Assistant State Attorney Stefanie Newman wrote in a close-out memo Wednesday that conflicting accounts and insufficient evidence from the October incident made a conviction unlikely.”

Even if Chapman is out of the legal woods, the memo, which can be read in its entirety via Diana Moskovitz of Deadspin, provides plenty of reason to believe there’s still a lot left to be determined about the closer’s playing status as MLB ramps up its investigation.

The memo describes a slew of “undisputed facts,” and one of the ugliest relates to Chapman’s shooting his firearm eight times in his detached garage: “Several bullet strikes were identified by police on the wall and concrete floor where the defendant may have shot into, or where the bullets had ricocheted when he fired his weapon inside the garage.”

That passage reveals reckless and horrendously bad decision-making from Chapman. It’s not just an awful look, but also bad timing for the New York Yankees relief ace.

Baseball implemented its new domestic violence policy in August, and commissioner Rob Manfred has the latitude to dish out a suspension even if a player isn’t convicted of a crime, as Davidoff noted.

During the recent quarterly meeting of MLB owners, Manfred foreshadowed what could be coming down. “When you have a new policy, the first ones take on a special significance in terms of tone and precedent and all those things,” Manfred said Thursday, per Davidoff.

Maybe the commissioner won’t hand Chapman a major suspension. But only a fool would count on seeing the four-time All-Star in pinstripes on Opening Day.

The Answer: Yes, Chapman will be suspended.

What’s Up with the Infield Market?

Winter is here, and it’s been especially unkind to one particular group of players:

Even after turning in a dud of a year in 2015 (.233 average), Ian Desmond is the headliner of that bunch. Like Howie Kendrick, the longtime Washington Nationals shortstop is lugging around a qualifying offer, and the attached draft-pick compensation is crushing his market.

It takes some digging to find any reported landing spots for the three-time Silver Slugger.

Back in December, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reported that the Houston Astros were “eyeing” Desmond to play somewhere other than shortstop.

Aside from Desmond and Kendrick, the draft-pick baggage is stalling things out for all the other infielders.

From the perspective of a club, there’s no sense in rummaging through the bargain bin for second-tier guys like David Freese, Jimmy Rollins or Juan Uribe until they find out just how low the price will drop on Desmond and Kendrick.

They aren’t infielders, but Dexter Fowler and Yovani Gallardo are the other two qualifying-offer casualties. With the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire Dec. 1, 2016, remedying the QO-induced quagmire looms as a major talking point.

The Answer: The qualifying offer system is bogging everything down.

Who’s Going to Sign Yoenis Cespedes?

For a guy who literally runs the club and signs the checks, New York Mets CEO Fred Wilpon sure doesn’t sound like he has the slightest clue about what’s going on in Queens.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Wilpon said when reporters asked about the team’s chances of bringing back Yoenis Cespedes, via Ken Davidoff. “I’ll stick with what [GM] Sandy [Alderson] said.”

As Davidoff detailed, Alderson explained that the Mets continue to talk with the Cuban’s camp. Per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, New York is “unwilling” to give Cespedes more than three years, but their division neighbor the Washington Nationals have offered five.

Signing La Potencia would likely require the Nats to clear space by shipping out another outfielder already on the roster, but it would be opportunistic for the team to bring in the game-changer. With Bryce Harper—the unanimous NL MVP in 2015—only under team control for three more seasons, this is the moment for Washington to strike.

As Rosenthal sees it, the Nationals have the ideal new boss to help Cespedes thrive: “[Dusty] Baker speaks Spanish. His specialty is connecting with players. He managed Barry Bonds with the Giants and a Cuban star with the Reds, closer Aroldis Chapman. He surely would welcome the opportunity to manage Cespedes.”

Jon Heyman of MLB Network and WFAN reported that Washington is moving aggressively to snap up the masher:

The Nationals should also look into the idea of giving Cespedes an opt-out after three seasons that lines up with when Harper could potentially bolt in free agency.

Such a clause would give Washington the chance to capitalize on Harper’s tenure while providing Cespedes with the incentive to post monster numbers before seeking yet another payday at the end of the 2018 season.

The Answer: Washington will land the slugger.

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and MLB.com.

If you want to talk baseball, find me on Twitter @KarlBuscheck.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It took far longer than anyone expected—nearly three months—but some of baseball’s top free agents finally found homes over the past week. Some, like Chris Davis, returned to familiar territory, while others, like Wei-Yin Chen, Ian Kennedy and Justin Upton, will need time to learn the lay of the land in new cities.

Yet even with all that movement, there’s still plenty of talent available at nearly every position, whether it be via free agency or trade.

Have those recent free-agent deals guaranteed a windfall for the top unsigned slugger? Can a team really have too much depth at a particular position? Will an All-Star who is still in his prime have his wish granted before Opening Day?

We’ll tackle all of that and more in this week’s edition of Fact or Fiction.

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It’s difficult not to admire the aggressive approaches of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox—two of the biggest spenders of the 2015-16 MLB offseason.

No one knows just yet how it will all shake out, but on paper, the upcoming campaign is looking awfully promising for those two franchises. At the same time, some clubs’ offseason overhauls don’t look nearly as impressive.

Let’s take a trip around the league and explore which teams have orchestrated the best and worst winter rebuilds.

Makeovers are all about total transformations, not just refurbishing already-competitive teams. For the purpose of this exercise, only squads that weren’t in contention (and weren’t on the right side of .500) in 2015 were eligible for consideration.

To determine which front offices executed the best and worst makeovers, we took one central factor into consideration: how effectively the given brass addressed their most glaring weakness from 2015.

The outlook for each team’s division also factored into the equation, and for a couple of American League hopefuls, that’s bad news.

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With Chris Davis re-signing with the Baltimore Orioles and Justin Upton taking his talents to the Detroit Tigers, we can cross two more teams off the list as potential landing spots for the biggest names believed to be available on the trade market.

That doesn’t mean there are no deals to be made, however. From young, up-and-coming stars to established talents who seem to fly under the radar, a handful of impact players could still find themselves on new teams before spring training begins.

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

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Only a fool would argue that the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox haven’t drastically upgraded their respective rosters heading into the 2016 MLB season.

The Cubs and the Red Sox are the kings of the winter, and with that title comes endless praise. The big question, as spring training hurtles closer, is whether that praise has reached unrealistic levels.

It’s not easy to measure praise or hype or buzz, but it’s also far from impossible. In order to determine which teams are already being overhyped entering the upcoming campaign, we’ve considered a slew of factors:

• The words/expectations of players on the given clubs
• Odds Shark’s World Series odds
• FanGraphs’ 2016 projections
• The landscape of each team’s division

As the four franchises who cracked this list will likely find out, it’s that final bullet point that will prove to be the biggest reason why it’s time to pump the brakes on the hype machine.

Detroit Tigers

2015 Record: 74-87

Key Additions: SP Jordan Zimmermann, SP Mike Pelfrey, OF Cameron Maybin, RP Francisco Rodriguez, RP Justin Wilson and RP Mark Lowe

Mike Ilitch, the 86-year-old owner of the Detroit Tigers, isn’t playing around. For the boss in Motown, it’s all about winning now.

“That’s all I think about,” Ilitch said, per Jason Beck of MLB.com. “It’s something that I really want. I want it bad.”

Thanks to a busy offseason of free-agent additions and trades, the Tigers, who piled up the second-most losses in the American League in 2015, climbed to the No. 8 spot in the power rankings.

The star acquisition for Detroit has been Jordan Zimmermann, who arrived on a five-year, $110 million pact. The righty immediately improves a starting crew that ranked last in the AL in ERA in 2015.

General manager Al Avila also revamped a suspect pen (No. 27 in ERA) by importing the likes of Francisco Rodriguez, Justin Wilson and Mark Lowe.

Even with all of the new names at Comerica Park, there are two big reasons to take it easy on the hype.

The first is that the Tigers call the savage AL Central home.

The Kansas City Royals are the reigning World Series champs, the Minnesota Twins missed a wild-card berth by three games, and don’t forget about the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. The Tribe sports the scariest starting rotation in the division (fourth in the AL in ERA in 2015) and the South Siders have gone on a shopping spree of their own.

Then there are all those “ifs.”

If Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Justin Verlander and Anibal Sanchez, who all missed significant time due to injury in 2015,  bounce back, then watch out for the Tigers. But that’s a lot of ifs.

Chicago Cubs

2015 Record: 97-65

Key Additions: SP John Lackey, OF Jason Heyward, UTL Ben Zobrist, RP Adam Warren, RP Rex Brothers and RP Trevor Cahill (re-signed)

Jason Heyward, the Chicago Cubs $184 million offseason pickup, is feeling awfully good about his new squad and their chances of securing a World Series title.

“We don’t show up for any other reason than that,” Heyward said, per Carrie Muskat of MLB.com. “We’ll see what’s going to happen, but I feel like the front office, the organization, ownership has done a great job of giving us a great platform to go out there, play baseball and try to win a World Series.”

Vegas agrees with the defensive wizard. Per Odds Shark, the Cubs are tied with the San Francisco Giants as the favorites to win the Fall Classic.

After an offseason that has also included the additions of John Lackey and Ben Zobrist, Chicago earned the No. 1 spot in the most recent power rankings.

Here’s the problem: The Cubs won 97 games in 2015, but the team also finished in third place in its own division.

Let’s begin with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Simply put, it’s never wise to bet against the Redbirds. No team in baseball is more adept at plugging holes on its roster than the Cardinals. Heyward left for a rival, but the club has outfielders Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk—who both out-OPS’d Heyward in 2015—ready to take on more prominent roles.

Lackey’s loss will hurt, but St. Louis has brought in the reliable, if unheralded Mike Leake to replace him. For the Cards, the wild card of the offseason is reliever Seung-hwan Oh, who Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports dubbed “the Mariano Rivera of Korea.”

Over at PNC Park, it’s been a characteristically quiet offseason for the Pittsburgh Pirates, as zero big-time splashes have been made. But the core of the team that won 98 games in 2015 remains intact.

In other words, the Cubs aren’t the clear favorites in the NL—much less their own division, which will once again be a nasty three-team race.

San Francisco Giants

2015 Record: 84-78

Key Additions: SP Johnny Cueto, SP Jeff Samardzija and OF Denard Span

This is going to look really stupid in November when the San Francisco Giants bust out the postseason magic and win yet another even year World Series.

But for now, there are plenty of real reasons to question just how much better the Giants (No. 3 in the power rankings and tied atop the field on OddsShark.com) really are entering 2016.

Let’s start with Denard Span. The eight-year vet, who will be 32 years old by the time opening day rolls around, is a game-changer—when he’s healthy.

“Span was the biggest loss of all of them [for the Washington Nationals] for me,” A source told Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller. “He’s a true leadoff guy. Legitimate, true leadoff.”

But last year, Span was not healthy, as he only played in 61 games. At the beginning of September, Span underwent hip surgery. That’s one scary procedure for a guy who’s game is based on his legs.

There are also some concerns about the arms that the Giants acquired.

Dating back to the beginning of 2011, Johnny Cueto has one remarkable resume:

ERA leaders since 2011:2.11 – Kershaw2.71 – Cueto2.82 – Greinke2.94 – Sale2.99 – Wainwright3.02 – Price3.03 – Felix3.05 – Bumgarner

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) December 14, 2015

However, the recent results are far less flattering. The second half of 2015 was a train wreck for the Dominican, as he posted a 4.76 ERA in 13 starts for the Kansas City Royals.

For Jeff Samardzija, all of 2015 was a train wreck.

Last season, the Shark gave up more hits and earned runs than any other pitcher in the majors. And the Giants just gave that guy $90 million over five years.

Boston Red Sox

2015 Record: 78-84

Key Additions: SP David Price, RP Craig Kimbrel, RP Carson Smith and OF Chris Young

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is getting a lot of love for his rapid-fire rebuild of the Boston Red Sox.

FanGraphs projected the Sox to win the second-most games in the bigs in 2016, and Odds Shark pegged the club as having the third-best shot at winning the World Series behind only co-favorites Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants.

It’s easy enough to understand why the Red Sox, who finished 15 games off the pace in the AL East in 2015, are so highly thought of heading into the upcoming campaign. Bringing in AL Cy Young runner-up David Price and four-time All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel will have that effect.

But don’t forget the Toronto Blue Jays, who reached the AL Championship Series, and the New York Yankees, who have acquired Aroldis Chapman and Starlin Castro, are around to quiet the Boston buzz.

As Richard Justice of MLB.com noted on Twitter, “parity” is the operative word when it comes to this division:

Parity? AL East has had 4 different division champs last 4 years: Blue Jays in 2015, O’s in 2014, Red Sox in 2013, Yankees in 2012.

— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) January 16, 2016

With the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Yankees headlining the field (and the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays both within shouting distance), parity will once again be the theme of the division in 2016.

Note: All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and MLB.com. All salary information courtesy of Cot’s Baseball Contracts on BaseballProspectus.com.

If you want to talk baseball, find me on Twitter @KarlBuscheck.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Established stars give an MLB team a base to build around, put fans in the seats and, more times than not, give the team an identity of sorts.

However, young players breaking through and becoming stars that often prove to be the difference in whether or not a team emerges as a contender.

All 30 clubs have at least a handful of promising young players who are either establishing themselves in the majors or trying to make the leap as top prospects.

Ahead is a look at 10 young players who are on the verge of becoming stars in the league.

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