Fact—New Year's Eve is fast approaching. Fiction—all of MLB's big-name free agents who remain unsigned will find new homes before the ball drops.

As you'd expect, having so many notable players still in search of employment has led to increased activity in the rumor mill. Now that Edwin Encarnacion has come off the board, some of those players who were seemingly in holding patterns are finally seeing significant interest from multiple suitors.

The first year Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot, I voted "not now."

OK, technically I just didn't vote for them, but as I explained then in a column for CBSSports.com, it was more of a "not now" vote than a "not ever" vote.

"They may never get in," I wrote, "but my guess is eventually they will."

Eventually is coming.

So, here it is. We've come to it at last. The point in the MLB offseason where the baseball news cycle is emptier than our holiday cookie jars.

This winter more than most, it was bound to come sooner rather than later. Trades are all well and good, but they're the side dishes of the hot-stove season. The main course is free agency, and it was never a secret that it wouldn't have much to offer this winter.

As always, it's been a busy offseason around Major League Baseball, with teams already crossing off a number of items on their winter shopping lists.

Earlier this offseason, a piece entitled "All 30 MLB Teams' Blueprint to an 'A' Grade in the 2016-17 Offseason" was written by yours truly as a to-do list of sorts for each team to follow.

It makes sense that to improve a Major League Baseball club, a player could not have been on the team last season.

Though the Los Angeles Dodgers' re-signings of Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner and Rich Hill were monumentally important, they didn't improve the club from its standing in 2016.

Instead, players who signed with new teams have the chance to make an impact in their new settings. All signings are not created equal, so here are the most impactful among them. Each of them fills a need glaring for each club when the 2016 season concluded.

The 2018-19 MLB offseason is going to be epic. Epic enough, in fact, to justify the use of that played-out adjective.

A galaxy of the game's brightest stars will hit the market. Front offices will throw around enough cash to exceed the gross domestic product of a few small nations.

Joe Blanton is dangerously close to going into the new year without a new team, but it appears his market is heating up. 

Continue for updates.

Despite being limited to 84 games in 2016, Trevor Plouffe will likely have a few suitors this offseason as teams target more cost-effective corner infield options.

Continue for updates.

Major League Baseball's hot stove has cooled off in the aftermath of the winter meetings, but there's still some buzz circulating the rumor mill as the calendar gets set to flip to 2017. 

Minnesota Twins second baseman Brian Dozier has emerged as a legitimate trade candidate following a sensational 2016 season, and he's not the only infielder who could be available. 

Next year will soon be here, but the 2017 Major League Baseball playoffs are so far off that they might as well be in a whole 'nother year. You might be thinking it's too soon to go there.

Or is it?

The 2016-17 offseason still has some boxes to check, including homes for free agents like Mark Trumbo and Jose Bautista. But most of the big names on the open market have already found homes. There have been some blockbuster trades as well.