Preview/Prediction

The World Series is over. Now begins the long, dark, cold road to spring training.

Better fire up the hot stove.

No Major League Baseball will be played in the next few months, but plenty of new homes will be found for free agents and trade targets. 'Tis the season for wheeling and dealing.

There's no time like the present to preview it all. Ahead is a breakdown of the best bargain bin, second-level and top-level free agents, as well as a look at the top trade candidates. At the end is a look at which teams figure to be the most active in the offseason market.

After the Chicago Cubs' decisive 9-3 win in Game 6 of the World Series on Tuesday, everything will come down to Wednesday's Game 7 in a series that has been evenly matched throughout.

After 108 years of waiting, Chicago Cubs fans will witness an epic Game 7 of the World Series tonight, even though their guys will be battling for the championship at Progressive Field in Cleveland. For the Cleveland Indians, it's been 78 years since their last title, so their fans have done perhaps enough waiting for a lifetime as well. 

For the second time in three years, baseball bettors will be treated to a Game 7 in the World Series, with the road team trying to win again.

This season, it will be the Chicago Cubs looking to win the World Series for the first time since 1908 as small -120 betting favorites Wednesday at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark against the Cleveland Indians.

The Chicago Cubs have won two must-games in a row. If they are going to win their first World Series since 1908, they will have to make it a hat trick.

The Cubs jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in Game 6, thanks in large part to some shaky outfield play by the Cleveland Indians in the first inning and a grand slam by Addison Russell in the third inning. The Cubs came away with a 9-3 victory to tie the World Series at three games each.

It all comes down to Wednesday night, as the Chicago Cubs will take on the Cleveland Indians in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series with each team looking to end long championship droughts.

Game 7. In combination, those two words stand as the greatest in the lexicon of sport. So they're worth repeating: Game 7.

That's what the 2016 MLB season will come down to: one final game.

Every pitch will be scrutinized. Every ground ball will mean something. Every hit will be followed by unparalleled emotion.

There are no two better words in all of sports than "Game 7," and that is just for a normal playoff series.

The 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians is no normal series.

The Cubs famously haven't won a championship since 1908, while Cleveland's last World Series title came in 1948. One of those teams will end decades of frustration with one single victory on Wednesday at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

The Chicago Cubs have kept their season alive, but the Cleveland Indians are still one win away from clinching the 2016 World Series.

After the Cubs survived with a 3-2 victory in Game 5, Cleveland still holds a 3-2 lead and now gets to return home for the final two games (if the last one is even necessary). One good game, and the Indians can celebrate their second title for the city in the past few months.

One of the popular national narratives surrounding the Chicago Cubs is to talk about the 108-year dry spell since their last World Series title.

Another tact is to talk about the Billy Goat jinx that has been associated with the team since 1945, when the goat's owner supposedly put a hex on the franchise for not allowing his pet into Wrigley Field for the World Series.