MLB Free Agency

There are still games to be played, some very meaningful, but there's no question that front offices for all 30 teams have already started preparing their offseason game plans.

Which free agents will they target? Which of their own free agents will they try and retain? Which players should they target in a trade, and which of their own players are expendable? How much money will be available to spend? Which of their minor league players are ready to make an impact at the big league level.

The free-agent market won't be officially open for business for about another month-and-a-half (at the conclusion of the World Series), but most free agents-to-be are down to their last 12 to 15 games to either boost, maintain or lose value. 

While a majority of the group will be in the "maintain value" category, a handful of others are either playing good enough to bump that price tag up or bad enough to knock it down.

Here are eight players, four from each side, who have shifted the needle on their free-agent stock during the past week or two. 

We are still a month from the start of the 2013 MLB postseason, and players often significantly impact their free-agent stock with their play down the stretch and in the playoffs, but it's still never too early to take a look at the upcoming crop of free agents.

Yesterday's news that the Cubs will likely pursue free agent-to-be outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, which was reported by Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago, shouldn't come as much

The competition to be the second-best free agent behind Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano this upcoming offseason is two months in, and there are no clear-cut answers as of yet. Injuries to Matt Garza and Josh Johnson and Tim Lincecum's continued decline from his former dominant self have the starting pitching market full of question marks. 

Teams in need of a shortstop in 2014—the A's, Cardinals, Mariners, Pirates, Tigers, Twins and Yankees are my early picks—will have slim pickings on the free-agent market next offseason with Stephen Drew and Jhonny Peralta the best of the bunch.

In Major League Baseball, how a free agent-to-be finishes the season is much more important than how he starts. The player's agent can chalk it up to a mechanical adjustment or a player getting back to full health or just finally "figuring it out" to explain why things didn't click until the second half.

In any case, agents will try to sell interested teams on the player that ended the season on a roll as opposed to the player who struggled early on. The other way around would be a much tougher sell. 

It’s not too early for a team to have buyer’s remorse after spending good money on a free agent who has yet to produce. I’m looking at you, Josh Hamilton, Melky Cabrera, B.J. Upton and Jeff Keppinger.

But how about those players who signed elsewhere and are having big years? Their new team is certainly happy. The team that let them walk as a free agent or was just outbid? Not so much.

Before the 2012 season, San Francisco Giants fans cringed when they heard Barry Zito’s name.

With the regular season underway, the free-agent market has understandably cooled down and is not something that will be talked about much over the next several months.

That said, last season saw veterans Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu and Roy Oswalt all find homes after Opening Day.

Here are my rankings of the top 15 MLB free agents still up for grabs.

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