MLB

If baseball is America's favorite pastime, the country's second favorite is making New Year's resolutions—and breaking them. Doing so might result in some extra pounds in the spring or more clutter in the garage, but typically, it's nothing that's going to impact our 2017 negatively.

The same can't be said for each of Major League Baseball's 30 teams.

Much of the Major League Baseball offseason picture has been painted, yet it still looks incomplete.

Though we have a better idea of how the remainder of the winter—and, subsequently, the 2017 season—may play out, there are still questions left unanswered.

Let’s try to tackle what remains to be asked about this offseason and what these questions mean for players and teams alike heading into the 2017 season.

Begin Slideshow

Last winter, the Chicago Cubs signed Jason Heyward to an eight-year, $184 million contract. Less than 11 months later, they won their first World Series since the Teddy Roosevelt administration.

Catcher Matt Wieters remains among the top players available in free agency, but his market appears to be heating up with multiple teams showing interest.

Continue for updates.

Fact—New Year's Eve is fast approaching. Fiction—all of MLB's big-name free agents who remain unsigned will find new homes before the ball drops.

As you'd expect, having so many notable players still in search of employment has led to increased activity in the rumor mill. Now that Edwin Encarnacion has come off the board, some of those players who were seemingly in holding patterns are finally seeing significant interest from multiple suitors.

The first year Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot, I voted "not now."

OK, technically I just didn't vote for them, but as I explained then in a column for CBSSports.com, it was more of a "not now" vote than a "not ever" vote.

"They may never get in," I wrote, "but my guess is eventually they will."

Eventually is coming.

So, here it is. We've come to it at last. The point in the MLB offseason where the baseball news cycle is emptier than our holiday cookie jars.

This winter more than most, it was bound to come sooner rather than later. Trades are all well and good, but they're the side dishes of the hot-stove season. The main course is free agency, and it was never a secret that it wouldn't have much to offer this winter.

As always, it's been a busy offseason around Major League Baseball, with teams already crossing off a number of items on their winter shopping lists.

Earlier this offseason, a piece entitled "All 30 MLB Teams' Blueprint to an 'A' Grade in the 2016-17 Offseason" was written by yours truly as a to-do list of sorts for each team to follow.

It makes sense that to improve a Major League Baseball club, a player could not have been on the team last season.

Though the Los Angeles Dodgers' re-signings of Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner and Rich Hill were monumentally important, they didn't improve the club from its standing in 2016.

Instead, players who signed with new teams have the chance to make an impact in their new settings. All signings are not created equal, so here are the most impactful among them. Each of them fills a need glaring for each club when the 2016 season concluded.

The 2018-19 MLB offseason is going to be epic. Epic enough, in fact, to justify the use of that played-out adjective.

A galaxy of the game's brightest stars will hit the market. Front offices will throw around enough cash to exceed the gross domestic product of a few small nations.