Opinion

For major league players, the actual moment of winning the World Series is the ultimate rush. Also a dream come true and the validation of so much hard work. All that jazz.

On a superficial level, the New York Yankees spending nearly $500 million on Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Masahiro Tanaka this offseason makes sense because the team missed the playoffs last year and had significant questions about the future. 

The Seattle Mariners finally continued their spending ways after agreeing to a two-year, $14 million deal with reliever Fernando Rodney, as reported by Grantland’s Jonah Keri. Keri also notes that the deal could be worth up to $15 million with incentives:

Hope springs eternal, and that may never be more true than in the hearts and minds of baseball fans. Every fanbase kicks off spring training with at least some sense of hope and optimism at the start of a new season.

There are obviously teams expected to contend each year, but the past two seasons have shown that dark-horse teams can emerge and make a push to October as well.

There is no denying that Pablo Sandoval has had a roller-coaster career with the San Francisco Giants. We have have seen the highs of a healthy Sandoval, who can hit .330 with 25 home runs, and the lows of Kung Fu Panda, who was overweight last year and hit a mere .278.

Leave it to the Arizona Diamondbacks to make a transaction that ought to have you scratching your head in bewilderment.

About said transaction, this happened on Friday: The Diamondbacks agreed to terms with veteran right-hander Bronson Arroyo. Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com had the news first:

Alex Rodriguez has given up on his pursuit to play Major League Baseball in 2014. For a player who has made a career out of negative public relations, the sport gave up on him a long time ago.

When the Boston Red Sox signed Jonny Gomes last winter, he was billed not only as a destroyer of left-handed pitching, but as a guy who would be instrumental in cultivating their clubhouse culture.

Human beard Jonny Gomes decided a lifetime of memories wasn't enough to savor his 2013 World Series triumph, so he went out and got a massive tattoo to commemorate the moment. 

In most years, the free-agent market would be barren in early February. Roster upgrades would be difficult to find, leaving general managers scouring for low-risk, high-reward options to augment their respective rosters.

This year is different.