MLB

Justin Upton and Matt Kemp should probably keep their phones nearby. 

The Seattle Mariners need a cleanup hitter. What position that hitter plays remains to be seen. The club was reportedly interested in shortstop Hanley Ramirez, but it lost out on the former Dodger when he signed with the Red Sox.

It is Thanksgiving, which means the holiday season is in full swing.

With Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez both going to Boston and a few other free agents already signed, it is clear that baseball's offseason is well underway as well. Rumors are swirling and whispers are making their way across the league about which teams are after certain players.

Risk versus reward.

My definition of "value" is based on two simple things: what will a player cost your team versus what will the player provide on the field.

We are just a month into the 2014-15 MLB offseason, but there have already been a number of significant signings around the league, as the free-agent market has developed quicker than in years past.

The position player market in particular has been busy, as Russell Martin, Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, Yasmany Tomas, Adam LaRoche and Michael Cuddyer have all found new homes, while Victor Martinez re-signed with the Detroit Tigers.

Major League Baseball's offseason isn't yet a month old, and teams have already spent upward of $400 million combined in free agency, a majority of which came from the Boston Red Sox's same-day splurge on top position players Hanley Ramirez ($88 million for four years) and Pablo Sandoval ($95

The Atlanta Braves have generally focused more on trades and building from within the organization over recent years.

However, with the Braves trading Jason Heyward and actively shopping Justin Upton—as reported by the New York Post's Joel Sherman—they could open up some payroll to get players in the free-agent market.

For some baseball fans, the most exciting part of the game has absolutely nothing to do with how things unfold on the field. It's the offseason, chock-full of rumors, speculation and "what if' scenarios, that gets their hearts racing and works them into a frenzy.

You can't really blame them, for there's only one hot-stove league—and it's almost always a perfect mix of excitement and entertainment.

By now, every MLB fan knows that the Boston Red Sox are going for broke. And we all know that the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants have been linked in some way to just about every big name on the open market.

What about teams that may not have pockets quite as deep? What about those clubs best described as sleepers when put into the context of being big players on the free-agent market?

Well, let’s take a look at three such franchises.

It's early yet, but so far this offseason, the Baltimore Orioles sure are acting like a team that just went 96-66 and won the American League East by a dozen games. You'd expect a team like that to play it cool, and that's what the Orioles are doing.