Pitchers and catchers will report any day now, but until then there’s still plenty of unfinished business to tend to out on the free-agent market.
Here we are in late January, and notables like speedy center fielder Michael Bourn and veteran starting pitcher Kyle Lohse still don’t have contracts. Proven closers like Jose Valverde and Brian Wilson are also still looking for work, and I suspect all of us are waiting for the Texas Rangers to do something.
The rumor mill has something to say about each of the above topics these days, as well as plenty more about this/that player and this/that team.
Let’s go ahead and take a look at all the hottest rumors and play a little game of “Fact or Fiction” while we’re at it.
Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted. Salary and contract info courtesy of Cot’s Baseball Contracts.