Rankings/List

Whether acquired as a free agent or via trade, the biggest acquisitions in baseball this past offseason all arrived in spring training with big expectations. Some have lived up to the hype. Others, well, let's just say they wish we were grading on a curve.

For our red pen spares nobody's feelings.

With spring training games in full swing and position battles going strong, all 30 MLB teams have at least a handful of major storylines surrounding the club.

We are still four weeks from Opening Day, and plenty of new storylines will pop up in the weeks to come as a result of surprise performances and unexpected injuries.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create baseball's ultimate lineup, one that will play in the biggest game ever played. The pitchers you'll face remain a mystery—chances are they'll be the best of the best—and you can only pick from current players.

Who do you choose?

In the case of MLB's star players, two important factors determine how they are expected to perform.

Past success and the value of their contract.

Both serve to set an expectation for their on-field product. Each year, there are those whose surprisingly stellar play increases their stardom and others whose poor play brings their status among the game’s elite into question.

Both cases are rampant each baseball season. The 2015 season was no different.

With spring training games underway, now is as good a time as any to put together our preseason position-by-position power rankings for the 2016 season.

What follows will be a look at the 10 best players at each position, based simply on how they are expected to perform during the upcoming season.

That's an important distinction, as these rankings are not based on how guys played in 2015 but instead are a prediction of who will be the 10 best at each position this coming year.

Every year finds new MLB players living up to their potential or exceeding even the loftiest expectations, delivering a fresh crop of emerging stars to the baseball world.

Kris Bryant and Carlos Correa went from potential stars to legitimate studs upon their arrival in the big leagues last season, while Jake Arrieta and Carlos Carrasco finally figured things out in their late 20s.

Spring training is finally underway, and games are set to begin this week in the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues, so let's kick things off with another updated version of our MLB power rankings.

We last updated these rankings Feb. 22, so any transactions or injuries that have taken place between then and now were factored into the changes you'll see in the following rankings.

The free-agent market was slow to unfold this offseason, leaving a number of high-profile players unsigned heading into the new year.

Most of the significant dominoes have now fallen as spring training is underway, but there are still a handful of potential impact players searching for a new home here at the end of February.

Ian Desmond is the top name still sitting out there, but he's by no means the only position player looking for work, as a former home run champion and a World Series MVP are also available.

Mo more big checks need to be signed. Negotiations have concluded. Though it may murmur quietly in the early stages of spring training, free agency is essentially over.

But that doesn’t mean that teams are done adding to their rosters. It only means it won’t be as simple as writing a check.

Now if a team wants to add, it will need a trade partner—and the assets to shop.

What does a pitcher need to win the Cy Young Award?

This list will undoubtedly feature some of the top arms in the game. Several of the pitchers here have won the award before, while others have come close—but not close enough.