Baseball season is over. The offseason can now begin.
The Kansas City Royals are World Series champions for the first time in 30 years, and business will soon be underway on Nov. 6 when free agency commences in Major League Baseball.
MLB free agency is bound to be hectic. Plenty of big names are looking for big-time contracts and could possibly find a new home in the process.
Let's take a look at some early rumors that we'll need to keep an eye on as the winter meetings draw near.
Mets May Let Cespedes Walk
The New York Mets acquired Yoenis Cespedes to be a difference-maker in their run toward the National League pennant.
It turns out this honeymoon could be very short-lived, according to CBS Sports' Jon Heyman.
Heyman is reporting that there is "increasing belief" that the Mets will let Cespedes test the open market, rather than pay him what he may command. This is only three months after the Mets sent two minor league pitchers to the Detroit Tigers for Cespedes.
"Though Cespedes has played brilliantly for them," Heyman said, "people around the game figure they will save the big bucks for their vaunted young pitching staff."
It's certainly understandable that the Mets would rather build around their young rotation for the immediate future. Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Jacob deGrom are all bound to get a huge payday at some point. If the Mets can find some financial flexibility to get some more offense while still having enough to pay their four top pitchers, letting Cespedes walk would not be a bad idea, especially with how much he struggled in the World Series.
ESPN.com's Adam Rubin documents how much of a liability Cespedes was against the Royals:
Cespedes, a free-agent-to-be like Murphy, has had a quiet World Series at the plate. He was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts Saturday, giving him a .176 average and one RBI in the Fall Classic.
He has endured a few suspect plays in center field, too. Similar to the inside-the-park homer in Game 1, Cespedes awkwardly played a fly ball to left-center from Salvador Perez in the fifth inning on Saturday. The ball ricocheted off Cespedes’ leg and Perez was credited with a double. Perez ultimately scored on Alex Gordon’s single for the first run against Steven Matz.
If this is a sign of things to come, then Cespedes may want to start thinking about his next home, which would be his fifth team in three seasons.
Orioles Talking to Chris Davis?
Another free-agent-to-be that swings a powerful bat is Chris Davis.
The Baltimore Orioles first baseman will be one of the top players available this offseason, after hitting 47 home runs in 2015.
Davis is just one of six crucial free agents that the Orioles will think of bringing back, including catcher Matt Wieters and outfielder Gerardo Parra.
Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun is reporting that, according to industry sources, the Orioles have been in contact with some of their top free agents. No players were named specifically, but Connolly reported that Darren O'Day's agent, Jeff Borris, has been talking with the Orioles and says O'Day is open to coming back to Baltimore.
"Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette wouldn’t go into specifics," Connolly said, "saying only that, 'Once the season is over Major League Baseball has rules governing dialogue between players and clubs, and rules that also apply to outside comments about any of that.'"
The Orioles seem to be in the same predicament as the Mets. Baltimore may want to save money in order to reward Manny Machado and Adam Jones with huge paydays down the road. Davis turns 30 years old next March, and plenty of teams could use a powerful left-handed bat.
While the home runs are there for Davis, he is one of the league's leaders in strikeouts. Davis struck out 208 times this season, the first time he's ever gone over the 200 mark in strikeouts. He still batted a respectable .262 and drove in 117 RBI, but the strikeouts could be an issue for any team that would be interested in the American League's leader in homers this year.
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