MLB

Fresh off a long-awaited World Series title and with a young core that rivals any in baseball, the Chicago Cubs entered the offseason with a fairly short to-do list.

Wade Davis and Koji Uehara have been added to the back of the bullpen, and veteran outfielder Jon Jay was signed to pair with Albert Almora Jr. in replacing Dexter Fowler in center field.

Unlike the rest of the baseball universe, MLB's rumor mill doesn't get time off to partake in New Year's Eve festivities. There are no parties or concerts; no hanging out in New York's Time Square to watch former pop sensations suffer embarrassing "technical difficulties."

With 2017 officially here and spring training just around the corner, the Boston Red Sox have the luxury of already having checked the big boxes on their offseason to-do list.

No player enters free agency hoping to sign in January. No team wants to let half the winter go by with significant needs unfilled.

But here we are in the new year. Free agents remain unsigned. Deals that had to be made remain undone.

And Jose Bautista wonders where it all went wrong. Or maybe he doesn't.

This winter, most of the Boston Red Sox-related headlines have been about prospects leaving town. Most notably, the Red Sox shipped a gaggle of young talent to the Chicago White Sox in the Chris Sale trade, including five-tool Cuban Yoan Moncada.

The calendar may have flipped to 2017, but we're still a couple of cold months away from baseball. That's actually good news (hear me out) for many MLB clubs with unfinished items on their to-do lists.

Like, say, the New York Yankees, who have holes to plug in the starting rotation, the bullpen and behind the dish.

There is roughly one month remaining before pitchers and catchers begin reporting to spring training, but there are still a number of impact options on the free-agent market.

Mark Trumbo, Jose Bautista, Matt Wieters, Mike Napoli and Michael Saunders headline the remaining available position players; Jason Hammel and injury returnee Tyson Ross are the top starting pitchers still looking for a new home; and Neftali Feliz, Jerry Blevins, Boone Logan, Joe Blanton and Greg Holland represent impact relief options.

Whether it's at the lowest levels of amateur baseball or in MLB, few positions have a bigger impact on a team's success—or lack thereof—than catcher. Not only are these players expected to contribute offensively, but they must masterfully handle a pitching staff and control the opposition's running game.

Got a talented homegrown pitcher? Might want to hold on to that. Could be valuable someday.

Sound advice under any circumstances. And possibly growing sounder by the day.

Seemingly everyone wants controllable pitching this winter, and the asking prices reflect as much. You've probably heard the Chris Archer and Jose Quintana rumors. You certainly heard about the Chris Sale trade.

Former San Diego Padres catcher Chris Cannizzaro—who was the organization's first All-Star in the 1969 season—died Thursday night, according to Kirk Kenney of the San Diego Union-Tribune. 

He had lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).