MLB Trade Rumors

1. January Will Bring the Max Scherzer Thaw

Spring training is little more than a month away, which means the biggest marquee free agent this side of Jon Lester is about to sign with…

"The two sleepers all along for me were St. Louis and Washington," one American League executive said of Max Scherzer's possible destinations. "They're just guesses. I can see him with the Yankees, too, or going back to Detroit."

Sometimes, baseball's rumor mill spins furiously, spitting out juicy tidbits with the speed of an Aroldis Chapman fastball and leaving us with more potential trade scenarios to dissect and speculate about than we know what to do with.

Other times, the rumor mill resembles David Ortiz rounding the bases, taking a slower, plodding approach that forces us to dig deep in finding worthwhile trade scenarios to banter about. For a weekly series such as this, it's those other times that prove to be the most difficult.

There's less than three months remaining until Opening Day, and the Los Angeles Dodgers look decidedly different than they did at the beginning of the offseason.

For starters, the front office was stripped down and replaced with a new regime headed by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi.

The best way to summarize Major League Baseball's offseason is it resembled a heavy metal concert. There was a quiet beginning, followed by the massive head rush that happened at the winter meetings and currently waiting for one loud coda before spring training begins. 

The St. Louis Cardinals have found success over the last few seasons with a strong pitching staff. The rotation, while successful, has been a source of injury concern. The team has seemed confident that the starting pitchers are healthy for the 2015 season. Their rumored interest in top-tier starters may suggest otherwise.

One month removed from the winter meetings, Major League Baseball's hot stove seems to have burned out. There are still two big free-agent dominoes in Max Scherzer and James Shields, but the trade winds are starting to pick up once again. 

The majority of the offseason's most valuable trade chips have already been dealt, but there are still a few coveted veterans who could be on the move before the start of spring training in February.

Complementary veteran pieces are still available for the right price. Oftentimes, those are the types of acquisitions that set the offseason's successful teams apart from the pack. While the big prizes of the winter are the ones that lead to the most improvement, the extra pieces take a team over the top.

With the free-agent market largely devoid of impact talent—aside from Max Scherzer and James Shields, that is—general managers around baseball have little choice but to explore trades in order to plug holes or find the upgrade at a position that they've been searching for on their respective rosters.

But in order to swing a deal, a GM must find a willing trade partner, which is often a bigger challenge than coming to an agreement on an actual swap.

The 2014 season was a major disappointment for the Boston Red Sox, as the defending 2013 World Series champions dropped all the way to last place in the American League East.  In the process, the Red Sox traded away several veteran starting pitchers while looking to retool for 2015.   

There's no other way to put it: The MLB offseason market for bats is looking bleak. 

While the offensive options are extremely limited, there are still some prominent pitchers up for grabs on the free-agent and trade fronts. Max Scherzer headlines the class of remaining free-agent arms, and aces like Jordan Zimmermann and Johnny Cueto have been the subject of trade buzz.