NL East

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 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.

This past year, Jacob deGrom became the fifth player in Mets history to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award. The other winners were Tom Seaver in 1967, Jon Matlack in 1972, Darryl Strawberry in 1983 and Dwight Gooden in 1984.

If you think the Atlanta Braves did well in the Jason Heyward trade, just wait until you see how they do in the Justin Upton trade.

Or so they hope, anyway.

The New York Mets started the offseason with an unexpected bang, inking veteran Michael Cuddyer to a two-year, $21 million pact. Since then, they've gone mostly quiet.

That has to change if New York is truly shifting into win-now mode, as assistant general manager John Ricco suggested after the Cuddyer signing.

Coming into the MLB offseason, you could look at the Washington Nationals and conclude within, oh, three seconds that the last thing they needed to tinker with was their starting rotation.

But now it sounds like general manager Mike Rizzo might do that anyway. And if he does, he could do so in a big way.

One year after being traded to the Washington Nationals, right-handed pitcher Doug Fister could be on the move yet again. 

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Nationals would be inclined to deal Fister under the right circumstances:

Giancarlo Stanton is rich. You and I are not. 

Perhaps this explains why we weren’t slamming $20,000 champagne and presumably playing high-stakes ostrich polo with Stanton inside a Miami nightclub this week.

It’s not a coincidence that many of the biggest trades in recent years have involved blue-chip prospects. With the market rate for impact players on the rise and teams trying to manage their payrolls more economically, prospects, though unproven in nature, have come to represent a form of currency.

Are you jealous of Giancarlo Stanton, the Miami Marlins outfielder who, as you've heard by now, has agreed to a record-setting contract that will pay him $325 million over 13 years?