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Coming off their worst season in decades, the Boston Red Sox face a tough road to get back to the top of an American League East that seemingly grows tougher every day. 

The team has been in shambles ever since their historic September meltdown in 2011 that cost them the playoffs and former manager Terry Francona his job. 

The Arizona Diamondbacks are primed to make a run at the defending MLB champion San Francisco Giants and the free-spending Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. 2012 was a letdown, but 2013 is going to be a major rebound year.

Spring training is three weeks away, yet there are still several players who could help MLB clubs available on the free-agent market.

Perhaps teams want to go through drills and a couple of weeks of exhibition games to see what they have on their rosters before bringing outside help in. Maybe a few of these players are still holding out hope for a starting position that doesn't currently exist.

This MLB offseason has been like no other—that might be a stretch, but it’s still been extremely interesting to say the least.

A handful of general managers and front offices have picked apart their rosters and put their teams back at least five years.

While making predictions for the upcoming season is always a challenge, predicting five years down the road is virtually impossible

With so much changing on a season-to-season and even a day-to-day basis in the MLB, the landscape of the league will no doubt look entirely different by 2018.

Challenging as it may be, here are my predictions for who will be each team's best player five years from now.

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Provisional rosters for teams participating in the 2013 World Baseball Classic were released on Thursday. Although they are exactly that, provisional, and therefore likely to change prior to the opening round of pool play on March 2, they do offer a general idea about the quality of each squad.

When MLB released its 2013 schedule last September, there were a couple of major changes.

With the Houston Astros moving to the American League West, each division in both leagues now has five teams. As a result, each team will play 76 games (19 each) against division opponents, 66 (six or seven each) against non-division league teams and 20 against interleague foes.

Another wrinkle is that there will be at least one interleague game every day of the season.

No player has been mentioned in more trade rumors this offseason than Justin Upton—and with good reason.

On Jan. 18, arbitration-eligible players had until 1:00 p.m. EST to exchange salary figures with their respective ballclubs.

Many players avoided arbitration by coming to an agreement on the days prior.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, teams can sign players for any amount before salary figures are exchanged. However, after 1:00 p.m. EST, clubs can only negotiate between the two salary figures presented by both sides.

Being a superstar does not ensure that a player will stay with one team for a long time. There are a number of other factors at play, and this could lead teams to deal talented players for huge returns.

Some teams will look to deal their stars that are closing in on free agency so that they can get something in return for them. Other stars may be dealt because they do not mesh with the current roster that they are on.

Blockbuster deals are also interesting because they can have a significant impact on the league. There should be at least a few of these deals in 2013.