MLB Trade Rumors

“Pitchers and catchers report” may be the most magical words in sports, but there are still some trade rumors to work out before MLB spring training officially gets underway. 

The Philadelphia Phillies are prominent in many of those, but their division rivals, the New York Mets, are as well. Read on for the latest speculation surrounding these National League East teams before spring training begins.

The question isn't whether anyone wants Stephen Strasburg. Everyone wants a 26-year-old budding ace who just led the National League in strikeouts.

The question is whether anyone will pay what it takes to get him.

Make no mistake: it'll take a lot. 

Major League Baseball's offseason has been bananas, right? Perhaps the wildest and most active in recent memory—or maybe ever. At least, that's how it feels while we're right in the middle of it.

But how does this offseason stack up with hot stoves past?

Let's start with a quick table that ranks the past nine offseasons in terms of total spending on free-agent contracts, according to ESPN.com:

There was a bit of a lull in the MLB offseason until big news hit that will surely influence more activity among teams with holes left to fill ahead of spring training.

The Washington Nationals, already one of the deepest pitching teams in baseball, made a splash late Sunday night when they inked right-hander Max Scherzer to a massive seven-year free-agent deal.

Slowly but surely, MLB's hot stove is starting to cool down.

A handful of Major League Baseball teams are scheduled to have pitchers and catchers report Feb. 18, which means only one thing: We're barely a month out from the official start of spring training.

That makes right about now as good a time as any to update the winners and losers of this active offseason so far.

Now that it's mid-January and spring training is just about a month away, the hot stove has started to settle down, at least a little.

Sure, there's still a pair of big-name free-agent arms available in Max Scherzer and James Shields, and a trade or two tends to come to fruition every few days. But for the most part, the wave of transactions reached its peak in December.

The 2014-2015 MLB offseason is coming down the homestretch, but there are still more than a few things to be sorted out between now and the time pitchers and catchers start to report to spring training roughly a month from now.

Major League Baseball may be in the midst of its offseason, but that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning out hot rumors about some of the biggest stars in the sport.