Taking a temperature reading in the dead of winter is never fun, but with February officially underway and spring training just around the corner, it won’t be long before everything starts to thaw and eventually warm up in Major League Baseball.
Over the coming days and weeks, between big-name free agents still to be had and potential difference-making trades to be made, there’s plenty more that can—and will—happen during what has become an extended Hot Stove season this year. And it’s not like there hasn’t been plenty of player movement to this point in the offseason already.
Better yet, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks, who open the regular season in Australia on March 22, are both set to open camp—are you ready?—this coming week. All other clubs will soon follow.
That in mind, whaddaya say we break out the thermometer a little early this year and run down the top 10 World Series contenders for the 2014 season—along with their key additions and subtractions—at the outset of February?
After all, this is the shortest month of the year.