Opinion

It sat on my desk for several days just before Christmas. In the envelope. Unsealed. Stamp affixed. Questions nagging.

Finally, into the mail it went.

Last-minute Christmas card? No.

My Hall of Fame ballot.

Coming off a huge breakout in 2015, Yoenis Cespedes has a rare sort of distinction on the free-agent market. He's arguably the most talented player still available, but he is also arguably the biggest question mark still available.

For most of the last two years, the New York Yankees specialized in acquisitions that were anything but flashy. Many were useful and some were surprisingly good, but none of them screamed, "Look at us!"

Like trading for Aroldis Chapman did. Now that's a Yankee move.

Mike Piazza, the best offensive catcher in baseball history, isn't in the Hall of Fame. And nobody can really explain why.

Yes, you will hear phrases like "stain of the steroid era" and "cloud of suspicion." But these are the facts: Piazza was never suspended for performance-enhancing drug use. His name did not appear in the Mitchell Report, and it hasn't surfaced in any subsequent PED revelation.

As the calendar flips to 2016 and the spring training clock begins ticking in earnest, it's time to update the hottest questions of the 2015-16 MLB offseason.

Plenty has transpired this winter. Big-ticket free agents have fallen off the board, seismic swaps have been consummated and the baseball landscape has measurably shifted.

The teams are interested and lining up. 

They can certainly smell a potential deal that benefits them when the scent wafts through the offseason air. And the aroma is strong with this one.

The Hall of Fame ballot arrived in the mail last month, filled with tough choices. Too many steroid guys, too many close calls.

And one sure-fire, no-doubt Hall of Famer.

If the Hall allowed us just one vote a year, this would have been the easiest ballot ever.

Put a check next to Ken Griffey Jr. Sign the ballot and mail it in.

And I would have been fine with that.

One part of the 2015 MLB season that will persist even after we all change our calendars is the offseason. That makes now as good a time as ever to take stock of what's going on, and we're going to do that by honoring the Internet gods with a good, old-fashioned list of offseason winners and losers.

We'll look at only the five biggest winners and losers of the winter to date. And though we can't say they're ranked in any particular order, we can say they range from teams that are and aren't doing well to specific players who have and haven't made a killing in free agency.

Scott Kazmir is nice. Quite fine, even.

But Scott Kazmir is not enough to fix what is becoming a more uninspiring offseason by the day for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers, three-time defending National League West champions, agreed to a three-year, $48 million contract with the left-handed Kazmir, according to Fox Sports' Jon Morosi:

With the new year rapidly approaching and fanbases starting to count the days until the start of spring training, the MLB hot stove has started to cool a bit since the winter meetings came and went.

That being said, there is still a lot of offseason to go before Cactus and Grapefruit League action gets underway, and we could see at least a few more significant trades before then.