Opinion

There’s a proven closer in the NL East that can definitely be had, but teams could be more interested in trading for one of the division’s other relievers.

This guy’s name: Drew Storen.

With the start of spring training just weeks away, Major League Baseball teams are looking for small pieces to upgrade the roster heading into the season. 

There are plenty of big names still available in the free-agent market, including Ubaldo Jimenez, Fernando Rodney, Nelson Cruz, Stephen Drew and many more. However, teams have shown an unwillingness to give out multi-year deals or big money for these types of players.

Position players for the Kansas City Royals have a spring training report date of February 19. The current build of the Royals roster might not be intact when it's time to report to Surprise, Arizona though. Slugger Billy Butler could be headed toward a new destination as Kansas City looks to beef up its pitching without overpaying in free agency.

Masahiro Tanaka is supposed to be a star. After all, he went 24-0 last season in Japan, and he seems to have all of the tools necessary for success. Read this analysis by our own Adam Wells if you want a more technical breakdown of this phenom, but let me give you a few highlights.

With nearly a decade gone since the Montreal Expos relocated and granted D.C. and its metropolitan area residents the gift of a professional baseball team for the third time in Major League Baseball history, the Washington Nationals have long-buried the ineptitude of their geographical predecessors.

We've reached the month of February, meaning pitchers and catchers will begin reporting to spring training in a matter of weeks.

The month January was not nearly as busy as prior months, but it was not without notable moves. Japanese right-hander Masahiro Tanaka finally found a new team, and Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw netted a record-breaking extension, among other notable moves.

There is still work to be done this offseason, with handful of impact arms still on the market and a few everyday position players still looking for new homes as well.

Anybody interested in a guy who has logged at least 199 innings in nine straight seasons and has posted ERAs under 4.00 in four of the past five?

Knowing that the guy those numbers belong to is still floating on the free-agent waters, apparently not. And figuring out why that's the case is harder than it should be.

Alex Rodriguez finally learned his fate when arbitrator Fredric Horowitz dropped his suspension from 211 games to 162 games, first reported by USA Today's Bob Nightengale. In the process, it has given the New York Yankees salary relief for the 2014 season by wiping A-Rod's money off of the books. 

Given how the market in Major League Baseball works today, prospects have become more valuable than ever. 

Teams are finding that it costs less to promote, say, a back-end starter who will only cost $500,000 in pre-arbitration years from the minors than to give $45-50 million to a mid-rotation pitcher like Ricky Nolasco or Matt Garza. 

Because of this new market inefficiency, teams are less likely than ever to trade prospects they have multiple years of control over.

Chicks dig the long ball; at least that's what the old commercial featuring Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine told us. 

Even though Major League Baseball has shifted toward a pitching and defense game, it's still exciting to see a hitter step in the box and launch balls over the fence. After all, the best part of the All-Star festivities is the Home Run Derby.