AL Central

The Kansas City Royals made a big splash in 2012 when they traded away top-rated prospect Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery and Patrick Leonard to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for James Shields and Wade Davis.

The Detroit Tigers have lost their ace. Mr. Scherzer is going to Washington, where he’ll reportedly earn a massive amount of cash, per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, pitching alongside the likes of Stephen Strasburg and fellow former Tiger Doug Fister.

The Detroit Tigers reached a settlement agreement on a one-year deal with ace David Price on Friday, avoiding salary arbitration in the process. The starting pitcher will make just shy of $20 million in 2015.

The Detroit Tigers have had yet another frenzied offseason. They didn’t waste any time getting started—within a few weeks of the season ending, Victor Martinez was re-signed, and they had picked up Joakim Soria’s option.

This early activity set the tone for the weeks to come. Other noteworthy additions included Yoenis Cespedes and Alfredo Simon, while Rick Porcello and Torii Hunter were among the significant departures.

After managing the Kansas City Royals to their first American League pennant in nearly three decades, Ned Yost has been rewarded with a one-year contract extension.    

The team announced the news on Twitter:

The Detroit Tigers have spent the last few years putting all their resources into the MLB club and ignoring the farm system. Therefore, while they’re winning at the highest level, the organization’s lack of impact talent and depth on the farm puts a lot of pressure on its big league roster to stay healthy. 

Heading into the 2014 season, it was almost a forgone conclusion that several of the Minnesota Twins’ top prospects would reach the major leagues. But that never happened.

Center fielder Byron Buxton, widely considered the sport’s top prospect, lost most of his highly anticipated campaign with a wrist injury and a concussion, while slugging third baseman Miguel Sano ultimately missed the entire season following Tommy John surgery.

The Chicago White Sox may not have many big names on the farm beyond Carlos Rodon and Tim Anderson, the team’s first-round draft picks from the last two years, respectively, but they’ve quietly developed a deep system featuring a combination of high-probability and high-ceiling prospects.

The best way to describe Cleveland's farm system after the 2014 season is sneaky good. Though it's thin on pitching prospects (less so after this year's draft), the Tribe have assembled a promising collection of young hitters, including several who are either switch-hitters or swing from the left side of the plate exclusively and project to remain at an up-the-middle position long term. 

The San Francisco Giants may have won the 2014 World Series, but the season belonged to the American League Champion Kansas City Royals.

General manager Dayton Moore’s vision of building a winning organization based on strong scouting and player development finally was validated, as the Royals introduced a collection of homegrown talents to a national audience last October.