Opinion

Bartolo Colon was a 20-year-old kid in 1994, already a promising prospect but too young and raw to help a Cleveland Indians team that was ready to win.

If you know the feeling when you walk into a restaurant and the server tells you the place is out of your favorite dish, you can empathize with baseball executives heading into this offseason.

Free agency typically provides general managers with a wide-ranging selection of players who can improve their chances heading into the upcoming season. This offseason, though, it’s as if baseball is out of everything on the menu.

The San Francisco Giants need to bolster their bullpen.

The Giants know it. Every other team knows it. Your second cousin who's wrapped up in the election and doesn't really follow baseball knows it.

Remember when Sonny Gray seemed to have one foot in an Oakland A's uniform and one foot on the trading block? Those were interesting times.

Now they may be ready for a comeback.

To get Yoenis Cespedes in 2015, the New York Mets had to give up the guy who will probably be the American League's Rookie of the Year (Michael Fulmer). To keep Cespedes in 2016, the Mets had to offer him a three-year contract that also allowed him to make $27.5 million in one year and become a free agent.

The first price was high. The second price might have been higher.

The Los Angeles Dodgers need another ace. They have a deep farm system. And the free-agent starting pitching cupboard is basically bare.

Add those disparate facts up and what do you get?

Possibly Chris Sale plying his trade in Southern California.

Houston, we have a rumor.

You want details? Here you go, courtesy of MLB Network's Jon Morosi:

Let's unpack the particulars.

The Chicago Cubs won the World Series last week. Thus crumbled a championship drought that had lasted for 108 years. That's a glimmer of hope for other long-suffering MLB franchises if there ever were one.

Now all they need is for some damn fool to project when that glimmer of hope might pay off. I guess that's me.

Buster Posey didn't need to pad his resume.

At age 29, the San Francisco Giants catcher has already won a Rookie of the Year trophy, a batting title, three Silver Sluggers, a National League MVP and three championship rings.

For even the all-time greats, that's a career and change.

Free agency won't be quite as intriguing as in years past, but quite a few huge names are set to hit the market.

Below, we'll break down some of the latest rumors or buzz surrounding a few of those players and offer predictions for where they might end up in 2017.

Yoenis Cespedes

Let the bidding begin.