Baseball

If there were any doubt the Chicago White Sox intend to put a winning product on the field in 2015, the Adam LaRoche signing erased it.

If you think the Atlanta Braves did well in the Jason Heyward trade, just wait until you see how they do in the Justin Upton trade.

Or so they hope, anyway.

After not making the playoffs for the second year in a row, it is clear the New York Yankees will have to make some moves this winter if they intend to compete in 2015.

It's the Yankees, so you know that is exactly what their intentions are.

In only about three years, Theo Epstein has built the Chicago Cubs farm system into one of the game’s best.  Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Javier Baez and Jorge Soler are four of the most exciting young prospects in the league, and 28-year-old right-hander Jake Arrieta emerged on the scene as a potential ace with a sterling year in 2014.

Coming off a 2014 season that was disappointing for both the Cincinnati Reds and Jay Bruce, it's being reported the club might be dangling the two-time All-Star outfielder, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

In many ways, for many reasons, the New York Yankees trading for Troy Tulowitzki makes sense. After all, they're the major-market, deep-pocketed, All-Star-obtaining Yankees, and in 2015, they'll be embarking on their first season sans shortstop, captain and future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.

When I discussed the players the Los Angeles Dodgers had sent to the Arizona Fall League, I mentioned that many of the top players were position players. The pattern held; over the course of the month, the hitters far outperformed the pitchers. This is not surprising given the talent disparity, but it's noteworthy.

The New York Mets started the offseason with an unexpected bang, inking veteran Michael Cuddyer to a two-year, $21 million pact. Since then, they've gone mostly quiet.

That has to change if New York is truly shifting into win-now mode, as assistant general manager John Ricco suggested after the Cuddyer signing.

Coming into the MLB offseason, you could look at the Washington Nationals and conclude within, oh, three seconds that the last thing they needed to tinker with was their starting rotation.

But now it sounds like general manager Mike Rizzo might do that anyway. And if he does, he could do so in a big way.

One year after being traded to the Washington Nationals, right-handed pitcher Doug Fister could be on the move yet again. 

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Nationals would be inclined to deal Fister under the right circumstances: