MLB

The best season of Kyle Seager's MLB career will apparently result in the Seattle Mariners third baseman being set for life. Jeff Passan of Yahoo!

Most free-agency talk regarding the Washington Nationals this winter will start and end with their search for a second baseman. But MLB's offseason isn't called the "Hot Stove" because of aging middle infielders moving teams. 

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, is one of the most important Hall of Fame exhibits in all of sports, and the Baseball Writers' Association of America revealed the ballot featuring the 2015 nominees on Monday.    

The first month of the MLB offseason is the most crucial because it generally establishes which teams are going to be players and which teams are going to sit most of the winter out.

We've now come to roughly the one-month mark, and many teams have already indicated the roles they'll play in the coming weeks. The rumors have swirled since before the World Series ended, but they've now picked up with no more baseball to play. The focus is solely on free agency and the trade market.

The 2014 MLB offseason has been underway for several weeks, meaning it's about that time when we'll start to see some major dominoes fall.

Some big pieces have already fallen. Russell Martin has gone north of the border to the Toronto Blue Jays. Adam LaRoche is headed to the South Side of Chicago to suit up for the White Sox. Billy Butler left the American League champion Kansas City Royals to play for the team they beat in the Wild Card Game, the Oakland Athletics.

Pass the mashed potatoes, please, while we count our blessings.

Family? Definitely. Friends? Absolutely. Food on the table and a roof over our heads? You bet. Mom's homemade pumpkin pie? Yessir (with whipped cream, please).

And then there are the New York Yankees.

There's always that dark-horse team that gets in the way of your MLB free agency predictions.

Don't worry; it happens to everybody.

But staying informed on the hottest free-agent rumors makes it easier to decipher which teams will be players for which free agents. Of course, you'll always have those situations like when the Seattle Mariners shocked the entire universe and outbid the New York Yankees for Robinson Cano.

But that doesn't happen often.

The 2015 MLB Hall of Fame ballot is set to officially be released Monday, and with it comes the start of this year's debate over who deserves to be immortalized in Cooperstown.

Among the newcomers to the ballot are a trio of pitchers who were among the best of their generation in Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz.

The first-timers will join 17 holdovers from last year's ballot, led by Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines, who all received at least 45 percent of the vote last year.

The latest object of nearly every major league team’s desire is a Cuban baseball player—more specifically, a Cuban slugger. This craze was started by Yoenis Cespedes, then put into high gear by the “Wild Horse,” Yasiel Puig, and capped off by last season’s American League Rookie of the Year, Jose Abreu.

The Detroit Tigers have had a productive offseason to this point. Their biggest priority, Victor Martinez, was promptly inked for another four years, and signings/trades have also yielded Joakim Soria, Alex Avila, Anthony Gose, Joel Hanrahan and Josh Zeid.

Not bad for seven weeks' work.

Assembling Detroit’s squad won’t stop there. Despite answering questions regarding designated hitter, catcher and, to a degree, center field, one glaring blemish still remains: the bullpen.