Opinion

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.

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.

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.

The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is typically a quiet one in the Major League Baseball universe. General managers are spending some much-needed time away from the office with their families, more focused on assembling the toys that Santa delivered for their kids than building a roster for the 2017 season. 

Starting in center field for the New York Mets...Andrew McCutchen.

Your reaction to that sentence—assuming you're a Mets fan—likely depends on your feelings about risk versus reward. Because, boy, does McCutchen offer plenty of both.

The MLB offseason is still far from over, but most of the big dominoes have already fallen on another busy winter.

Mark Trumbo, Jose Bautista, Mike Napoli, Matt Wieters and Michael Saunders headline what's left of the position-player market, while Jason Hammel is the top unsigned starter and Neftali Feliz, Jerry Blevins, Boone Logan and Greg Holland are all capable of helping at the back of a bullpen.

'Twas the night before the night before Christmas, and all through MLB, fanbases were stirring, from Seattle to Miami.

Some of those fanbases are stirring with giddy excitement about the possibilities for their favorite team in 2017. Others are stirring because the team they cheer for has yet to make a big splash, or perhaps—(audible gasp)—they've even taken a step backward this winter.

In keeping with the theme of the upcoming holidays, executives around MLB still have plenty of gift giving to do for their respective managers.

Multiple players—be it via the trade or free-agent markets—are available who could have an impact on division races in 2017. Where those players may land—and to an extent, who they are—still remains a mystery.