MLB

After weeks of speculation and rumors regarding the future of starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League have officially decided to post him for bids from teams in Major League Baseball.

Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times was able to translate the announcement from Sankei Sports:

Suffice it to say, the 2014 MLB free-agent market is getting thin. 

Sure, Nelson Cruz is still available. Plus, a number of front-line starters are patiently waiting for new deals while the Masahiro Tanaka saga holds up the entire market for starting pitchers. Of course, all of those players are expected to command top dollar. 

The Kansas City Royals have been active in adding pieces to the club this offseason.  On the heels of a winning season, the team obviously feels that they will find themselves contending for the division title in 2014.

The heavy lifting of the MLB offseason is done, with just a few marquee names still available on the free-agent market.

While the trading block can always shake things up, most of the groundwork for the 2014 season has been laid. It's certainly been a busy one, with Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reporting the league is on pace to spend more than $2 billion this winter.

The offseason is still going strong into late December.

The latest free-agent chip to fall was Shin-Soo Choo, who signed a seven-year, $130 million pact with the Texas Rangers. And while the Rangers had few options left to jump-start their offense, it’s possible the Choo deal will blow up in their face.

The top names like Robinson Cano, Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Shin-Soo Choo and Brian McCann have been signed. The biggest trade we're likely to see this offseason—Prince Fielder for Ian Kinsler—has been completed, too.

So what's left?

Hanley Ramirez has a new cut, and it's what's known in the fashion business as "a whole thing."

The Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop recently traded in his curls, opting for a straight, James Brown-esque flow he's taken to flaunting on Instagram.

The 2013 MLB season wrapped up nearly two months ago, and now that we've had some time to digest everything that happened in what was another exciting year, it's time to take a look back.

Every team inevitably has a handful of players who turn out to be pleasant surprises each year, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, a few players who wind up being huge disappointments.

So here is a look at all 30 MLB teams' biggest surprises and biggest disappointments of 2013 as we close in on the final week of the year.

In missing the playoffs for only the second time since 1995, New York Yankees' general manager Brian Cashman was tasked with making sure that 2013 was just an exception to the rule.

The MLB hot stove has cooled off considerably in recent weeks. Many of the top free agents have come off the board, which has allowed those left on the market to await offers from teams desperate to fill a hole, with trades being the alternative option.