Opinion

The first five weeks since the Chicago Cubs captured their first World Series title in 108 years have generated one of the most action-packed starts to an MLB offseason in recent memory. From blockbuster trades to lucrative free-agent signings, contenders haven't hesitated to make splashes.

The stories this week about Edwin Encarnacion were mostly about how much money he wasn't going to get. And maybe he won't.       

Encarnacion's market "cratered," to use the word Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports worked into a tweet Wednesday. And maybe it did.

The 2016 Winter Meetings are over, but the offseason action is still getting started.

While it is easier to complete deals when everyone is in the same location, not a single team is settled heading into the 2017 season. Everyone is going to be looking for upgrades, either through trades or free agency, to help improve the roster before pitchers and catchers report.

Here are some of the latest rumors surrounding trades that could still go down in the coming days or weeks.

Major League Baseball’s hot stove was white-hot this week with winter meetings sparking a flurry of franchise-changing deals.

The Chicago White Sox were at the center of it all, dealing starting pitcher Chris Sale and outfielder Adam Eaton in trades that altered the dynamic of each of the franchises involved.

It all gave us a new set of questions to answer concerning the 2017 season and beyond. Who are contenders? Who are pretenders? Which teams were able to secure their futures?

It wouldn't be a proper day after the winter meetings without discussion of all the big deals.

The four days of hot-stove action at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, didn't disappoint. Among the things that happened were trades involving an elite starting pitcher, a star outfielder and a star closer, along with signings of some of the best players on the free-agent market.

The 2016 MLB winter meetings yanked multiple big-ticket free agents and trade targets off the board.

Ace lefty Chris Sale jumped from the Chicago White Sox to the Boston Red Sox. Mark Melancon shattered the record for a relief-pitcher contract, then Aroldis Chapman shattered it again—and so on. 

That's the allure of the annual December confab. It invariably alters the offseason landscape.

The St. Louis Cardinals have the unenviable task of catching up to the Chicago Cubs. It's a mission that will take all their cunning.

Their latest idea: deny the enemy and enrich themselves in one fell swoop.

The party in National Harbor, Maryland, is over. Major League Baseball's winter meetings have come and gone, leaving us to pick up the pieces.

Tell you one thing: It's not hard to see who made out well and who didn't.

Let's get into that by looking at the six winners and four losers of the winter meetings. They're a nice balance of teams and individual players who are walking away from Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center with either smiles or scowls.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The New York Yankees need Aroldis Chapman the way they need red socks, or birdcages containing blue jays and orioles in the grand foyer of Yankee Stadium.       

Not only would the aforementioned be utterly ridiculous, but the absurd notion also includes mention of the three teams that finished ahead of them in the AL East last summer, by the way. And, the teams that could school them again next summer.

The Washington Nationals were quickly turning into the bridesmaids of the 2016 MLB offseason, and not in the charming, Kristen Wiig sense of the word.