Baseball

Heading into the 2014 season, it was almost a forgone conclusion that several of the Minnesota Twins’ top prospects would reach the major leagues. But that never happened.

Center fielder Byron Buxton, widely considered the sport’s top prospect, lost most of his highly anticipated campaign with a wrist injury and a concussion, while slugging third baseman Miguel Sano ultimately missed the entire season following Tommy John surgery.

The Chicago White Sox may not have many big names on the farm beyond Carlos Rodon and Tim Anderson, the team’s first-round draft picks from the last two years, respectively, but they’ve quietly developed a deep system featuring a combination of high-probability and high-ceiling prospects.

The best way to describe Cleveland's farm system after the 2014 season is sneaky good. Though it's thin on pitching prospects (less so after this year's draft), the Tribe have assembled a promising collection of young hitters, including several who are either switch-hitters or swing from the left side of the plate exclusively and project to remain at an up-the-middle position long term. 

Max Scherzer is the biggest pitching prize still on the free-agent market, but there is another starter still without a team who is due for a big payday soon.  Former Kansas City Royal James Shields is a little old at 33, but he has had an impressive career and should have plenty of suitors.

The Oakland A’s have planned to contend in 2015 all along.

Ben Zobrist, one of the most versatile players and best bargains in Major League Baseball since becoming a full-time player with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2009, has a new home. 

After playing more than 1,000 MLB games with the Rays, Zobrist has been traded to the Oakland Athletics, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports:

The San Francisco Giants may have won the 2014 World Series, but the season belonged to the American League Champion Kansas City Royals.

General manager Dayton Moore’s vision of building a winning organization based on strong scouting and player development finally was validated, as the Royals introduced a collection of homegrown talents to a national audience last October.

It's still hard to tell where Max Scherzer is going to sign, but logic says that he'll end up signing with the team that simply has to have him.

According to the latest report, that team is the Detroit Tigers. And if we once again ask our pal logic, it says said report might be right.

It's no secret: The Seattle Mariners regained relevance last season due in large part to their starting rotation.

As general manager Jack Zduriencik puts the finishing touches on 2015's roster, however, that may not hold so true as the M's make their first playoff push since the early 2000s.

Few teams have been as busy this offseason as the Miami Marlins.

The decision to extend Giancarlo Stanton with a historic 13-year, $325 million contract thrust the Marlins into win-now mode, and it wasn’t long before the club began to aggressively retool its big league roster around the 25-year-old slugger.

However, building a strong supporting cast around Stanton meant blowing up the farm system, and so the Marlins were forced to part with top prospects.