With the candidates for the American League MVP Award essentially determined already (Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera), let’s turn our attention to the National League. The award is wide open this year with no clear favorite standing out.

Who will claim 2014’s National League Most Valuable Player Award? You can be sure it will be one of these players.

Masahiro Tanaka has a terrifying arsenal of pitches, great command of the strike zone and an arm that can handle an exhausting workload. Oh, and he can also beat celebrity chefs at a strike-throwing contest and make the whole thing rather entertaining. 

Major League Baseball made history in 2013 as its revenues reached a new record high.

According to Maury Brown of Forbes, a league source said revenues will be between $8-$8.5 billion for 2013:

It doesn’t look like Nelson Cruz or Shin-Soo Choo will be playing for the Texas Rangers in 2014.

Even with most of the top free-agent targets off the board, teams are still looking to fill important roster voids.

And while remaining free agents like Shin-Soo Choo, Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez would have big impacts on their new prospective teams, general managers will still need to fill roster spots with lesser, veteran options too.

Taking performance-enhancing drugs and lying about his age apparently did not suffice for Miguel Tejada.

Third baseman Juan Uribe is reportedly headed back to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a two-year deal after testing free agency.

Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal was the first to break the news:

For some position groups on the MLB free-agent market, it's down to slim pickings following the torrid pace of the offseason action so far. For other spots on the diamond, there are still several marquee players available after the ho-hum winter meetings wrapped up earlier this week.

Many of baseball’s top prospects are playing in the Australian, Dominican, Mexican, Puerto Rican and Venezuelan winter leagues this offseason as they look to get a head start on the 2014 season and improve their chances of cracking an Opening Day roster.

Day two of the winter meeting got off to a bang as the rumored three-team deal between the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels came together rather quickly and was a reality by early afternoon.

With one more day before the focus turns to the Rule 5 draft on Thursday, expect at least a few more big free agent signings and/or trades to happen over the next 24-30 hours or so.