Fan News

It's that time of year again. Everyone is swearing off junk food, buying gym memberships and looking up local charities in order to hit their New Year's resolutions. But if the Dodgers want to return to the NLCS and have another shot at the World Series, they better make a few of their own.

As the New Year rings in, the St. Louis Cardinals have a lot to look forward to.

They are stocked up on talent at almost every position, are coming off a trip to the World Series and are poised to contend against the National League Central, all with a lower payroll.

Yeah, times are pretty good. But every team has room for improvement and the Cardinals are no exception.

Here are some New Years' resolutions for the birds from St. Louis.

After weeks of speculation and rumors regarding the future of starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League have officially decided to post him for bids from teams in Major League Baseball.

Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times was able to translate the announcement from Sankei Sports:

Suffice it to say, the 2014 MLB free-agent market is getting thin. 

Sure, Nelson Cruz is still available. Plus, a number of front-line starters are patiently waiting for new deals while the Masahiro Tanaka saga holds up the entire market for starting pitchers. Of course, all of those players are expected to command top dollar. 

The Kansas City Royals have been active in adding pieces to the club this offseason.  On the heels of a winning season, the team obviously feels that they will find themselves contending for the division title in 2014.

The heavy lifting of the MLB offseason is done, with just a few marquee names still available on the free-agent market.

While the trading block can always shake things up, most of the groundwork for the 2014 season has been laid. It's certainly been a busy one, with Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reporting the league is on pace to spend more than $2 billion this winter.

The offseason is still going strong into late December.

The latest free-agent chip to fall was Shin-Soo Choo, who signed a seven-year, $130 million pact with the Texas Rangers. And while the Rangers had few options left to jump-start their offense, it’s possible the Choo deal will blow up in their face.

The top names like Robinson Cano, Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Shin-Soo Choo and Brian McCann have been signed. The biggest trade we're likely to see this offseason—Prince Fielder for Ian Kinsler—has been completed, too.

So what's left?

Hanley Ramirez has a new cut, and it's what's known in the fashion business as "a whole thing."

The Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop recently traded in his curls, opting for a straight, James Brown-esque flow he's taken to flaunting on Instagram.

The 2013 MLB season wrapped up nearly two months ago, and now that we've had some time to digest everything that happened in what was another exciting year, it's time to take a look back.

Every team inevitably has a handful of players who turn out to be pleasant surprises each year, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, a few players who wind up being huge disappointments.

So here is a look at all 30 MLB teams' biggest surprises and biggest disappointments of 2013 as we close in on the final week of the year.