Fan News

The World Baseball Classic is back—or it will be this spring, with the fourth installment of the international baseball tournament scheduled to kick off on Mar. 6 and the championship game slated for Mar. 22 at Dodger Stadium.

The United States team enters the upcoming tournament still searching for its first World Baseball Classic title.

In fact, it has yet to finish higher than fourth, with that result coming back in 2009. It also has an eighth-place finish in 2006 and a sixth-place finish in 2013 to its credit.

It's November. That means turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and Evan Longoria to the Los Angeles Dodgers rumors.

Here's one, courtesy of MLB Network's Jon Morosi:

OK, that's less a rumor and more informed speculation. And maybe Longoria-to-L.A. talk isn't quite as inevitable as Thanksgiving.

It's been 21 years since Major League Baseball exited its last work stoppage.

Oh, how I'd love to tack an "and counting" on the end of that sentence. Instead, time may be counting down to baseball's next work stoppage.

Major League Baseball owners are reportedly considering locking out the players if the two sides fail to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement before the current deal expires on Dec. 1, per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

Rosenthal noted such a move would end baseball's streak of 21 straight years of labor peace.

Veteran catcher Jason Castro reached an agreement Tuesday with the Minnesota Twins on a new contract.

Like the action on the field, Major League Baseball doesn't always follow the offseason script outsiders anticipate.

Big-market clubs don't always make the biggest splashes. And teams we expect to stay silent sometimes emerge as the offseason's biggest surprises. So as we embark on a winter that could see an unusual number of trades, let's take a look at which teams could come up with unexpected hot-stove moves.

Could those clubs end up doing the same once the 2017 season ends?

Major League Baseball's offseason has already seen some action, but things will pick up after Thanksgiving as every team and free agent prepares for the winter meetings in December. 

Even though players are free to sign deals right now, the marquee names are most likely to wait until everyone converges on Maryland, where it's easy to get more people in a room to try to ignite a bidding war to drive up prices. 

It's only fitting that the trade chatter on baseball's rumor mill has begun to look like the dinner table at Thanksgiving: A veritable smorgasbord of options to choose from for us to fill the empty space in our bellies or, in the case of our favorite teams, the empty spaces on their rosters.

From former Most Valuable Players and All-Star relievers to versatile veterans and still-developing youngsters, there seems to be at least one potential trade chip that could fill any need a team may have on the diamond.

In a winter during which aces are in short supply, the hot-stove trade market seems to revolve around Chris Sale.

And he's not even the best thing on the market.

Let's make a case for the Chicago White Sox's other left-handed stud: Jose Quintana. He's also good, and he may also be available as the White Sox seek to course-correct after four straight losing seasons.

Justin Verlander and Boston Red Sox fans may not be on the best terms right now. After Verlander lost the American League Cy Young Award to Boston sinkerballer Rick Porcello, Verlander's fiancee, Kate Upton, voiced her displeasure via Twitter [warning: NSFW language].