Baseball

The hot-stove season is less than a month underway, but the Boston Red Sox have wasted no time stealing plenty of headlines.

The Cubs' future was on display late last summer with franchise cornerstones Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro playing on the same field as highly regarded prospects such as Javier Baez, Jorge Soler and Arismendy Alcantara.

Suffice it to say, the future is bright on the North Side of Chicago.

Entering the offseason, general manager Brian Sabean and the San Francisco Giants front office faced a question regarding free agent Pablo Sandoval that seemingly had no correct answer.

Seven Seattle Mariners prospects concluded play at the Arizona Fall League last weekend.

The Mariners sent three position players and four pitchers to the league, which lasted nearly a month-and-a-half and attracted some of the top prospects in baseball.

Among those representing Seattle were Taijuan Walker and D.J. Peterson, two of the top young players in the club's system.

After two subpar seasons as a member of the Cleveland Indians, Nick Swisher's days with the Tribe could soon be numbered.

According to Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com, the Indians are considering trading the 33-year-old first baseman and outfielder in exchange for a player with a similarly large contract:

Giancarlo Stanton is rich. You and I are not. 

Perhaps this explains why we weren’t slamming $20,000 champagne and presumably playing high-stakes ostrich polo with Stanton inside a Miami nightclub this week.

Veteran left-handed pitcher Zach Duke has bounced around the majors over the last several seasons, but he has reportedly signed a multi-year deal with the Chicago White Sox, according to Jon Morosi of Fox Sports:

When the Seattle Mariners signed Robinson Cano last winter, a prevailing train of thought was that they were probably more than one star away from being a contender.

Except not, as it turned out. With Cano in tow, the Mariners improved from 71 wins to 87 wins and barely missed the postseason in 2014. Since one star was good enough to take them that far, you wonder what one more star could do.

It’s not a coincidence that many of the biggest trades in recent years have involved blue-chip prospects. With the market rate for impact players on the rise and teams trying to manage their payrolls more economically, prospects, though unproven in nature, have come to represent a form of currency.

The Boston Red Sox have several holes to fill as they try to rebound from a last-place season in 2014.  While a trade or two is likely, the Red Sox will also look to bring in free agents to shore up their roster.

Far and away, the biggest need Boston has is starting pitching.  A potential ace like Jon Lester, Max Scherzer or James Shields is the primary target, but the Red Sox should bolster their rotation with additional depth as well.