Carl Pavano

With most of the big name free agents signed, sealed and delivered to their respective teams, it's time to look at what is still out there for the Minnesota Twins. The Twins still have plenty of questions at the major league level with the departure of Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier, J.J. Hardy, and Orlando Hudson. Will GM Bill Smith promote from within as is widely speculated to patch the bull pen together or will be go out and be aggressive as he were last January landing Hudson and Jim Thome? Let's take a look at the ten players the Twins would still love to land this offseason.

Heading into the offseason, the Yankees considered themselves favorites to land Cliff Lee, and the Rangers definitely thought they had a chance. The Angels though they could sign Carl Crawford, and several teams around the league believed they could bring in Zack Greinke.

With all three players off the market—Lee in Philly, Greinke in Milwaukee and Crawford in Boston—GM's around baseball are scrambling to find that backup plan, fill their budgets and put a competitive team on the field heading into 2011.

MLB free agency is in full swing with a lot of the top free agents already off the board.

Teams that missed out on the best available will be scouring the open market, looking for an extra bat or arm to give their team a boost. While the pickings are fairly slim at this point, there are still a couple of big names out there that could make an impact.

Of the available free agents, which are the best ones available?

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Coming into the 2011 season, the Twins have a lot of questions marks:

Relief Pitching has been the main concern. After losing Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain out of free agency, only a few bullpen locks remain. Matt Capps was the steady closer for 2010, and Jose Mijares will most likely return with a bigger roll in 2011. Returning All-Star closer Joe Nathan should be ready for spring training, but it doesn't make sense to expect too much from him after so recently undergoing elbow surgery.

Now that the winner of the Cliff Lee sweepstakes has been decided, the attention can turn to the rest of the free agent market. Carl Pavano is now the best free agent starting pitcher on the open market, and with Lee making a surprise move in returning to Philadelphia, teams have been left scrambling.

Well, after a much ballyhooed week of throwing money on the table at Cliff Lee, both the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers ended up coming home empty handed as the Philadelphia Phillies came out of nowhere to win the sweepstakes.

Now, the world seems to have stopped considering the fact that four nine-figure contracts have been doled out so far this offseason, and none of them are being paid for by the Yankees.

Early Tuesday morning, Cliff Lee made a surprising announcement that he would be returning to Philadelphia with the signing of a five year, $120 million contract proposed by the team Monday night. This announcement left the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers still looking to add a starting pitcher to their rotation.

Free agent Carl Crawford signed a monster deal yesterday with the Boston Red Sox.

Crawford signed a seven-year, $142 million deal, a huge move for Boston who recently traded for first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

With Crawford off the market, who will be the next big name free agent to sign?

Jon Heyman of SI.com is reporting that the New York Yankees have offered starter Cliff Lee a seven-year deal. The Yankees originally had a six-year deal worth roughly $140 million.

You don't need to tell Chicago Cubs fans how long it's been since they won the World Series. The 2010 season was another forgettable summer for the Cubs, but there are players available that can help them improve for 2011.

One of those players is Carlos Pena, who the Cubs signed on Tuesday. The Cubs need more power in their lineup and a better infield defense, and Pena will help them in both areas.

According to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Brewers GM Doug Melvin confirmed that the Brewers were one of the teams that met with Carl Pavano and his agent, Tom O'Connel, on Tuesday.

Melvin was rather tight lipped about the meeting saying, "I don't want to get into anything other than we met with him."