MLB Trade Rumors

Major League Baseball’s annual winter meetings are nearly upon us, with the events to be held on Dec. 8-11 in San Diego, California.

With front-office personnel and executives present from all 30 teams, the winter meetings typically produce both high-profile free-agent signings and blockbuster trades. And with every team evaluating their rosters for the 2015 season, prospects are often the deciding factor when it comes to an offseason deal.

Major League Baseball's offseason is more than a month old, but there's no shortage of rumors and speculation—and questions—around a number of free agents and trade candidates, as well as teams' objectives and plans of attack.

Some of the latest center on the plans of the deep-pocketed Los Angeles Dodgers, the fallout in Oakland from the Josh Donaldson trade and what Chase Headley is worth on the open market.

With the winter meetings beginning Sunday in San Diego, the trade talk around MLB is going to reach a fever pitch soon enough (not that there aren’t a bevy of rumors currently making their way around Twitter).

To that end, here are three MLB trade scenarios based on actual need and published rumors from the last week. 

The 2014-15 MLB offseason is just getting started. The winter meetings begin Dec. 7 in San Diego, but even that much-scrutinized annual confab is usually more about laying groundwork than swinging massive deals.

The calendar has turned to December, bringing about unbearably cold climates and a flaming MLB hot stove.

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 the rest of Major League Baseball was spending the evening of Black Friday recovering from all the hectic holiday shopping and Thanksgiving leftovers, the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics were busy putting the finishing touches on a blockbuster trade.

Justin Upton and Matt Kemp should probably keep their phones nearby. 

For some baseball fans, the most exciting part of the game has absolutely nothing to do with how things unfold on the field. It's the offseason, chock-full of rumors, speculation and "what if' scenarios, that gets their hearts racing and works them into a frenzy.

You can't really blame them, for there's only one hot-stove league—and it's almost always a perfect mix of excitement and entertainment.