MLB

It used to be easy to predict the contenders for an upcoming Major League Baseball season. For all the fuzzy situations, there were always the mainstays you could count on.

These, however, are strange times.

With offense at a premium around the league right now, the position-player market has moved quickly this offseason, leaving little in the way of impact talent remaining on the current market.

Dear Santa,

I don't want too much for Christmas. There are just a few things I would love to see. I don't even care about the presents underneath my Christmas tree.

I just want you to do a few things for the Oakland Athletics.

Please make the following wishes come true. If you can't make all of these happen, Santa, then for your convenience, I have ordered them from least realistic to most realistic.

The Boston Red Sox are one of baseball's most active teams this offseason.  In the last eight weeks, they added high-priced All-Stars to bolster their lineup and made several moves to strengthen their depleted starting rotation.  Boston also re-signed arms for its bullpen and recently completed a trade for a new backup catcher.

But of everything the Red Sox have done so far, which deal brought them the most bang for their buck in return?  Which transaction qualifies as the biggest steal to this point?

The MLB offseason is roughly halfway to the start of spring training in February. Plenty has happened over the course of the last couple of months, as teams work tirelessly toward building a better franchise for 2015 and beyond.

The Baltimore Orioles have attempted to build off of a successful 2014 season in which the team reached the American League Championship Series for the first time since 1997, but they haven't had much luck swinging any deals this winter.

With the flurry of moves that the Los Angeles Dodgers have made this offseason, it's difficult to hone in on just one.

After all, some of these deals were interconnected, a web of swift transformation ushered in by the metric-minded tandem now running the front office at Dodger Stadium: Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi.

The Washington Nationals are taking a noticeably patient approach this offseason, but last week the team put a clock on it with the announcement of spring training dates. 

Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to Viera, Florida, Feb. 19 with position players arriving five days later on Feb. 24. To put it in more dramatic terms, the preseason is less than two months away.

It is still only December, but the 2015 baseball season is rapidly approaching as pitchers and catchers will be reporting to camp in less than two months.

The winter meetings may be over, but there are still plenty of MLB transactions to be made.  One of the most intriguing trade possibilities remains Troy Tulowitzki to the Mets. 

The MLB offseason has already seen a flurry of moves, yet even more may be on the horizon.

With free agency continuing to become a less and less efficient way of building a team, general managers are acting accordingly. Just look at how San Diego GM A.J. Preller is going about turning the Padres into a contender.