Preview/Prediction

Having spent lavishly, both in cash and prospects, to bolster their pitching staffs, teams are finally beginning to turn their attention to the bats that remain available this offseason.

While free-agent outfielders such as Yoenis Cespedes, Alex Gordon and Gerardo Parra have been the subject of increased chatter on the rumor mill, teams are also looking to the trade market as a way to bolster their respective lineups, with an eye on potentially available outfielders as well.

Get ready, folks. On Wednesday afternoon, the results of the Baseball Writers' Association of America vote for the 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame class will be announced.

It's unlikely that the 2016 class of inductees will be as big as last year's, which saw a whopping four players elected into Cooperstown. But with enough cunning, we can make a fair guess about what is going to happen with the 32 players on the 2016 ballot.

Yoenis Cespedes, Chris Davis, Alex Gordon and Justin Upton have historically bad luck.

As Joel Sherman of the New York Post sees it, the market for free-agent game-changers has never developed at a slower pace.

"Never has there been this many talented free agents unsigned this late into the offseason."

Two months have passed since the Kansas City Royals celebrated their first World Series championship in 30 years, yet we sit here on New Year's Eve with more questions than answers about which team—or teams—are in the best position to take the crown from the defending champs.

Just when you thought it was safe to take a break from the Hot Stove League, the New York Yankees shocked the baseball universe by sending a four-player package to the Cincinnati Reds for All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman, a player many believed was immovable due to his current off-field issues.

The weather outside may not be winter-like for some, but Christmas typically brings with it a cooling off for the Hot Stove League. This year is no exception, as the rumor mill has gradually slowed to a crawl over the past week as the baseball universe makes its final holiday preparations.

For a day, at least, the business of baseball takes a back seat to the business of family.

Many of the big-ticket free agents in this year’s loaded class of have found new homes before the holiday, but given a dense contingent of 139 free agents total, plenty of outliers remain. 

Enough of this offseason thing. Let's skip ahead and talk about who Major League Baseball's big winners are going to be in 2016.

Yes, it's a little early to be doing this, but not too early. With nearly two months gone by, the MLB offseason is actually closer to spring training than it is to the World Series. There's still much to be done, but enough has unfolded for us to have a good sense of the 2016 power structure.

While trade chatter in the Hot Stove League has begun to regurgitate many of the same names we've been talking about for much of the offseason, a list that includes Carlos Carrasco and Jose Fernandez, one new name has begun making the rounds on the rumor mill—Jake Odorizzi.

The good news for MLB's most inactive contenders like the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Kansas City Royals is that it's not even Christmas yet, which means there's still plenty of time left to shop.

The bad news for those clubs is that the offseason simply hasn't gone to script—at least not yet.

As the baseball world prepares to shut down for the holiday season, this is the perfect time to survey the league and figure out which contenders can afford to be patient and which ones should be hitting the panic button.