MLB Free Agency

The Major League Baseball winter meetings are set to kick off in a week, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are likely to be active players in Southern California.

New president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi have already made several minor moves since taking over the front office in October, but there are still question marks facing the team in the midst of a culture shift.

While impact hitters like Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez have already landed monster deals, the MLB free-agent market for pitchers has been remarkably quiet. 

So far this offseason, there just hasn't been a ton of buzz surrounding top arms like Max Scherzer and David Robertson. One reason for the lack of activity is that clubs appear to be waiting for the market to set itself once the first domino falls.

It is Thanksgiving, which means the holiday season is in full swing.

With Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez both going to Boston and a few other free agents already signed, it is clear that baseball's offseason is well underway as well. Rumors are swirling and whispers are making their way across the league about which teams are after certain players.

Major League Baseball's offseason isn't yet a month old, and teams have already spent upward of $400 million combined in free agency, a majority of which came from the Boston Red Sox's same-day splurge on top position players Hanley Ramirez ($88 million for four years) and Pablo Sandoval ($95

By now, every MLB fan knows that the Boston Red Sox are going for broke. And we all know that the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants have been linked in some way to just about every big name on the open market.

What about teams that may not have pockets quite as deep? What about those clubs best described as sleepers when put into the context of being big players on the free-agent market?

Well, let’s take a look at three such franchises.

Key players have already signed new contracts this winter, setting the standard for how the rest of the offseason is going to unfold.

The market for free-agent hitters thinned out quickly Monday when the Boston Red Sox reportedly agreed to sign Pablo Sandoval, per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, as well as Hanley Ramirez, according to Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com.

The Los Angeles Dodgers front office has begun wheeling and dealing this offseason, acquiring low-cost pitching help over the past two weeks.

New President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman went the familiar route with his first move, trading for former Tampa Bay Rays reliever Joel Peralta and Rays minor league left-hander Adam Liberatore.

There's always that dark-horse team that gets in the way of your MLB free agency predictions.

Don't worry; it happens to everybody.

But staying informed on the hottest free-agent rumors makes it easier to decipher which teams will be players for which free agents. Of course, you'll always have those situations like when the Seattle Mariners shocked the entire universe and outbid the New York Yankees for Robinson Cano.

But that doesn't happen often.