Opinion

With Opening Day rapidly approaching, MLB teams are beginning to scramble in an attempt to shore up whatever weak spots may exist on their respective rosters, with one eye on the waiver wire and the other on the trade market.

It was hard to call Steven Matz the key to the New York Mets rotation on a day when Matt Harvey went to the doctor and the team wouldn't say what was wrong with him.

There's just one way to explain Andrew McCutchen "only" finishing fifth in the National League MVP voting in 2015. The guy just had an off year. Sad, but true.

But from the looks of things, 2015 is about to be ancient history.

The New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez enters the 2016 season with 687 home runs, putting him just 27 homers behind Babe Ruth.

Does A-Rod have what it takes to pass the Babe this season? Where would that put him among the all-time greats?

The Houston Astros have Dallas Keuchel, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner. And they have Carlos Correa, who just added an AL Rookie of the Year trophy to his case.

If you're searching for reasons to be excited about the 2016 'Stros, in other words, you don't have to look far.

Spring training really shouldn't be freakout season. But then, what the heck else are we supposed to do? Not freak out?

No way, man. It can't be done. Especially not when so many superstar players don't look the part.

We're going to focus on 10 superstars in particular whose performances in the spring exhibition season can't be ignored. Maybe said performance is validating our fears of an upcoming regression. Maybe there's an injury at play. Maybe something just isn't right. Or, maybe all of the above.

The great thing about the baseball season is we know we're in for seven months of surprises. The tough thing about making "bold" predictions is if we actually knew what was going to happen, it wouldn't be a surprise.

Baseball is unpredictable enough that the boldest predictions can sound completely outrageous—and then they can come true. We're not guaranteeing all of these will happen, but we do guarantee that any of them could happen.

Tommy John surgery has become as much a brand name as Band-Aid, Kleenex or Coke. We accept the once-experimental surgery as a surefire remedy to fix a pitcher’s arm.

Maikel Franco has apparently decided on the Kris Bryant route to stardom: hit a whole bunch of dingers in spring training, and then keep right on slugging in the regular season.

A fine choice, indeed. And one that could pay off just as well for Franco as it did for Bryant.

You're ready for the season to begin, and so is Madison Bumgarner.

Oh, he may still have a few kinks to work out in terms of stuff or mechanics. But in a Cactus League start Thursday against the Chicago Cubs, the cantankerous San Francisco Giants left-hander proved he was in midseason umbrage form.