Matt Kemp

Los Angeles Dodgers star center fielder Matt Kemp is back in the lineup for Friday's home opener against the San Francisco Giants after recovering from a potentially career-threatening left ankle injury.

To understand the ratings here and why these specific players are risky, first you must understand risk. This is not a general term, but a very specific term of art most closely related to the insurance industry. While we all know Flo and the Geico gecko, few of us have learned how insurance works or why it's so profitable. If you want to know why Matt Kemp, Derek Jeter and Joe Mauer—three of the biggest names in baseball with contracts to match—are risky, please let me explain before you blow up in the comments.

Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp is poised for a major comeback next season following two injury-marred campaigns. Less than two years ago Kemp had emerged as one of MLB’s top five players. Now some may argue that he’s merely the fifth best player playing for the Dodgers.

For every Josh Donaldson or Matt Carpenter, there’s an Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton. Even as comparatively predictable as baseball is to other sports, perfectly projecting all of the breakouts and disappointments is too tall of an order for even the savviest of sabermetricians. 

And that’s why the opposite ends of the production spectrum either dread or relish "next season."

The Los Angeles Dodgers have gotten so accustomed to adding big-name talent and payroll over the last two years that the idea of them trading a superstar like Matt Kemp is insane.

Of course, when you already have a surplus of expensive outfielders on your roster, everyone becomes available for the right price.

The action was modest through the first two days of the Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., with a couple of secondary-type signings taking place, as well as the interesting three-way trade between the Angels, Diamondbacks and White Sox.

Now that baseball is in the thick of the winter meetings, rumors and potential signings and trades will be heard out the wazoo. Plenty will be going around throughout the next two days or so, and Bleacher Report's Adam Wells has done a fantastic job of keeping track of them so far.

The most common thought of the week—I know because I've said it, wrote it, texted it and tweeted it myself—is how there won't be much left for teams to do at next week's winter meetings because everything has already happened.

It shouldn't be surprising that the Boston Red Sox are expressing interest in the Los Angeles Dodgers' Matt Kemp as has been reported by the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo.

The MLB offseason has only been going on for a few weeks, but it's already been quite a busy one in 2013, as rumors about a number of big players continue to come up.