Rankings/List

Most free-agency talk regarding the Washington Nationals this winter will start and end with their search for a second baseman. But MLB's offseason isn't called the "Hot Stove" because of aging middle infielders moving teams. 

For baseball fans, one of the only things to do this time of year is talk about free agents. Especially the hyped free agents, who we talk about again and again...and again.

Question is: Which ones are actually, you know, worthy of the hype?

That's the question we're asking today, anyway. We're going to go through a list of 15 free agents who can be fairly considered to be "hyped" based on their names, track records and/or contract projections and determine if they're actually deserving of the hype.

This past year, Jacob deGrom became the fifth player in Mets history to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award. The other winners were Tom Seaver in 1967, Jon Matlack in 1972, Darryl Strawberry in 1983 and Dwight Gooden in 1984.

Coming off a 2014 season that was disappointing for both the Cincinnati Reds and Jay Bruce, it's being reported the club might be dangling the two-time All-Star outfielder, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

There's an long-standing theory in sports—baseball included—that bad contracts are immovable objects, destined to bury the team holding them until they finally run their course.

Yet year after year, we see holes blown in that argument.

Whether it's a player's history of success, a shortage of available options at a particular position or a combination of both, players with bad contracts are not always assets without value.

Free agency isn’t just about which teams land the top players on the market. It’s also an opportunity for teams to find value where others don’t.

When it comes to Major League Baseball's offseason, the speculation and rumors are at least half the fun.

The rest, of course, is actually finding out which players were traded for each other and who signed with what team and for how much.

With the hot stove burning up with news, reports and hearsay, it's time to separate which stories have something to them and which ones don't with a little "fact or fiction."

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There are three types of MLB free agents.

There are those who are flat-out special and have been for some time. Then there are those coming off of their best season as they head into free agency. And sometimes, a free agent is both.

You can consider Russell Martin an example of a special player—offense, defense and leadership all wrapped up into one right-handed-hitting catcher—who played his finest baseball in 2014, parlaying it into a five-year, $82 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.

What had been a relatively quiet MLB offseason exploded Monday afternoon, leaving baseball fans wondering what else could be in store well in advance of the annual winter meetings.