MLB

The Kansas City Royals locked up two key leaders in their organization Thursday, announcing contract extensions for manager Ned Yost and executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager Dayton Moore.

Baseball is finally back with players preparing for the season, but a whole host of teams still have plenty of work to do.

A number of quality free agents remain available for squads hoping to improve before Opening Day in April. For those who can't find the right fit on the open market, there are also plenty of trade possibilities across the league.

Here are the latest rumors to watch out for heading into spring training.

There's no doubting the top of the New York Mets' starting rotation. Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard pack enough firepower to flash "No mas" on a radar gun, and some pretty good numbers, too.

But what of Steven Matz? As the left-hander prepares for his first full major league season, our inner pitching junkie can't help but wonder if he could turn the Mets' vaunted trio into a vaunted foursome.

The long, cold winter may still be going strong in some parts of the country, but one wouldn't know it in sunny Arizona and Florida, as pitchers and catchers have officially begun reporting to spring training.

We're still a few weeks from Grapefruit and Cactus League games getting underway, but in the meantime we've decided to take a crack at predicting some various odds and ends surrounding the 2016 spring training action.

These five writers made up our panel of prognosticators:

Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton shared space atop draft boards in the spring of 2012, and they shared space on prospect lists in the years that followed.

Spring training has finally arrived, bringing with it the optimism that only a new baseball season can offer. 

Of course that optimism runs higher in some camps than others, with a handful of clubs still scrambling to bolster their rosters before Opening Day arrives. The good news for those teams is that a larger-than-expected number of players are still looking for new homes, increasing their options.

Colorado Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu is fresh off a career season in 2015, and his team rewarded him with a new contract Wednesday as the two sides avoided arbitration.

The Rockies announced on Twitter they agreed to the two-year deal with the 27-year-old.   

Chicago Cubs position players don't have to report to spring training for about another week, but young slugger Kyle Schwarber is already in camp and showing off the power that got him to the majors so quickly.

That's bad news for any cars near the Mesa, Arizona, baseball complex.

Hanley Ramirez reported to Boston Red Sox camp Wednesday, six days before the deadline for position players, and he talked about the upcoming season, including his move to first base, with Rick Weber of ESPN.com.  

Like the San Diego Padres (here) and the Washington Nationals (here) before them, the Texas Rangers are giving fans an opportunity to win free season tickets with a swing of