Baseball

With MLB free agency beginning Monday night, the Seattle Mariners can officially start signing players in an attempt to upgrade their offense.

The St. Louis Cardinals were escorted into the offseason short of winning their 12th World Series championship. Looking ahead, the core of the team remains intact, and the Cardinals will need to make some cost-effective adjustments to their roster this winter.

Big spending is out of the question. Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. hasn't operated like that since he took the reigns of the organization in 1996.

The Los Angeles Angels made a potentially big move for their future Tuesday by signing promising Cuban prospect Roberto Baldoquin.     

According to Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com, the Angels reportedly inked the 20-year-old middle infielder to a deal that includes an $8 million signing bonus:

The Boston Red Sox figure to be active players in the free-agent market, and they'll need to be if they hope to compete once more in 2015.

The Red Sox need to add significant pieces to their starting rotation. They need to shore up their bullpen. And they must seriously considering pursuing upgrades at the hot corner and at backup catcher, too.

Yasmany Tomas remains quite a mystery, or at least an unproven commodity, to many in and around Major League Baseball, but that could work in the Cuban defector-turned-free agent's favor this offseason.

So much of the focus over the winter will be on the pitching market, headed by aces Jon Lester and Max Scherzer, as well as the consistent, durable James Shields and possibly Japanese right-hander Kenta Maeda if he is posted.

With the World Series now over, MLB free agency can officially begin. The Los Angeles Dodgers are sure to be players in the market as they search for ways to improve their roster after a second consecutive disappointing playoff exit.

When looking around the diamond, positions of concern for the Dodgers include shortstop, catcher, the back end of the starting rotation and the bullpen.

The Toronto Blue Jays have had internal discussions about signing free-agent catcher Russell Martin, per Jeff Blair of Sportsnet.ca.

The Chicago Cubs got their man and their manager.

With one mantra during his introductory press conference on Monday as the new manager of the Chicago Cubs, Joe Maddon aptly summed up why he's the perfect man to lead a talented young team to prominence.    

"Don't ever permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure," Maddon said on MLB Network. "That's on the top of my lineup card every night."       

The Kansas City Royals are coming off of their most successful season in almost 30 years. Now, with an American League Championship in hand, the team faces a new set of challenges. Possibly the largest challenge of all is sustainability.