MLB Free Agency

MLB free agency has certainly slowed down a bit after a wild start, but it's far from over.

There are still a lot of big names available this offseason as players hold out for the biggest and best possible deal that they can find on the market. Some of these players are waiting for the dominoes to fall, waiting for players like Chris Davis to sign before they put their pen to paper.

The glacial market for bats is slowly beginning to thaw, which means the long winter wait for Yoenis Cespedes, Chris Davis and Justin Upton should soon draw to an end as Week 9 of the 2015-2016 MLB offseason comes to a close.

While those unemployed sluggers dominate the conversation, there's also room for some talk about a retired masher and a former ace whose Hall of Fame credentials are in the headlines.

Free agency is great when it works, and it doesn't only work when a player signs a record contract or when your favorite team grabs the biggest star in the game.

Free agency works when a player gets to play where he wants the most and the team gets to keep the player it wants the most. It works when a small-market club can energize a region, win a World Series and still have a chance to go after another one.

The crazy part about Yoenis Cespedes, Chris Davis, Alex Gordon and Justin Upton all remaining unemployed at this late date in the offseason is that there's still a tremendous need for corner bats across the game.

The Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals are just a few of the contending clubs who should add an impact hitter as the 2016 season inches ever closer.

Yoenis Cespedes, Chris Davis, Alex Gordon and Justin Upton have historically bad luck.

As Joel Sherman of the New York Post sees it, the market for free-agent game-changers has never developed at a slower pace.

"Never has there been this many talented free agents unsigned this late into the offseason."

For the Miami Marlins, the club's New Year's resolution is incredibly simple: Just don't trade Jose Fernandez.

While the Fish don't have to do anything at all, action will be required for the vast majority of major league squads if they're going to fulfill their respective resolutions.

The New York Yankees have built a wicked nasty pen, but the rotation still needs an ace. The San Francisco Giants still have some unchecked bullet points on their offseason shopping list, and the Los Angeles Dodgers have an enigma to solve.

Yoenis Cespedes had help, but the fact is the New York Mets were just two games over .500 when he arrived and National League champions when he left. Cespedes isn't perfect, but the fact is his teams have gone 334-229 in games he has started and 179-229 when he hasn't.

When Kenta Maeda took the mound for one of his final starts with the Hiroshima Carp, about three dozen major league scouts made their way to Koshien Stadium to watch. That's three dozen, as in more than 30, meaning on that September afternoon, some big league teams had more than one set of eyes watching the 27-year-old right-hander.

And that was for just one of Maeda's 29 regular-season starts in 2015.

This year's crop of MLB free agents ranks as one of the most talented in recent memory. There's not only a ton of front-line talent but also plenty of depth across the board.

As a result of that depth, a few players have gone relatively unnoticed this offseason, with little in the way of buzz surrounding their potential landing spots.

Ahead is a closer look at seven free agents who are not getting the attention they deserve this winter.

Tony LaRussa and Dave Stewart just couldn't help themselves when it came to Zack Greinke.

When the Arizona Diamondbacks chief baseball officer and general manager saw the chance to bring the righty to the desert and punch a Greinke-sized hole in the Los Angeles Dodgers' rotation, they pounced—even if the price tag was a staggering $206.5 million including deferred money.