Free Agency

The Minnesota Twins magical run is over.

After falling to the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series, the players can now head home for the winter and the front-office—lead by General Manager Bill Smith—can begin the work of ensuring the Twins are a contender again in 2010.

The pieces are already in place for a very good ballclub next season.

Perennial All-Stars Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan should all be healthy and ready to contribute.

Over the coming weeks, there will be a number of tough decisions made on the north side of Chicago. Now that it appears the ownership issue will be settled soon, the business of baseball can begin again.

One decision that needs to be made is regarding free agent pitcher Rich Harden. Harden, who was acquired at the trade deadline in a move that directly countered the Milwaukee Brewers' acquisition of CC Sabathia, might have been the best Cubs starter down the stretch this past season.

The 2008 Seattle Mariners had the second-worst record in baseball (61-101); it was a campaign of no power and no pitching.

They paid a Carlos Silva $12 million over the season to lose 16 games—almost $1 million per loss.

They gave up five promising prospects for an ace—Erik Bedard—who pitched just 81 innings. GM Bill Bavasi probably thought he was buying job security when he swung the deal, but he was actually ringing up his own ticket out of town.

It's a tough economy out there. We all know that by now.

The New York Yankees have been built around major free agent acquisitions and trades.  (How'd they get Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Hideki Matsui, and on and on?) However, the greatest Yankees in the past few years have been home-grown talents (Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, Robinson Cano).

As the Red Sox have shown, baseball has become again a game where the young, home-grown players will help the team the best.

So, if baseball's changing, are the world's greatest team prepared for a change?

Probably not.

Washington Nationals 2009 Preview

The biggest signing during the 2008 offseason was Adam Dunn. Dunn had been phenomenal throughout the World Baseball Classic, but will he provide enough offense to a lineup that struggled so mightily in 2008? Most likely not.

The Nationals also acquired Josh Willingham (trade, Marlins), Daniel Cabrera (Free Agency), and Scott Olson (trade, Marlins), which should help their depth problem going into 2009.

Yes, the Yankees have a bench problem, at least in the infield.  Cody Ransom and Angel Berroa are the back ups.  Ransom is young, and no one is sure he'll work, and Berroa's on a minor league deal.

There are still players on the market for the Yankees.

In my opinion, there are two options: