Baseball greets new year with old business

Forget this week's noisemakers and confetti if it's the baseball calendar you live by.

The game's annual cycle isn't quite over and it's more than scraps that remain to complete an eventful and sometimes tumultuous offseason.

Free-agent pitchers Max Scherzer and James Shields are heavy favorites to emerge from virtual silence and create the most sound in the seven weeks before the beginning of spring training. But from there until Opening Day and probably beyond, if it's fury you prefer, nothing should top the arrival and subsequent melodrama of Alex Rodriguez at New York Yankees camp.

The rest of the world says it's a new year, so here's a look at the unfinished business before the baseball year ends:

Scherzer and Shields: It's often a game of chicken that surrounds big-time free agents, but for the cream of what's left on the market, the showdown could be who signs first.

Scherzer is a client of Scott Boras, always the odds-on favorite to be last man signing. But it wouldn't hurt the cause of Shields and his lower-profile PSI Sports Management to let Scherzer set a bar at conceivably as much as $200 million for seven or eight years.

Another Boras trademark is the "mystery team" he likes to inject into the public side of his negotiations. As things stand now for his man as well as for Shields, any significant suitor would qualify for mystery status.

Are the Detroit Tigers lurking to keep Scherzer despite their posturing that most resembles shrugging? Surely the Yankees must be linked to an opportunity for big spending. Roster need and/or financial resources can create cases for at least one-third of major league teams making a serious run at Scherzer.

That list includes the Red Sox, Rangers, Cardinals, and Cubs – maybe even Marlins, Padres and Astros. Money is no object – or certainly less of one than desire – for the Dodgers and Angels.

Sign and trade is an NBA tactic but it could be a route for the Nationals, who would be more inclined to move post-2015 free agents Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister if they had Scherzer under contract.

And it's pretty much the same story at a lower cost for Shields.

Speaking of trades: It wasn't a big free-agent market to begin with and there's hardly been a reluctance to wheel and deal all winter. No need to stop now.

In fact, several teams have a significant reason to keep it up.

Tampa Bay's Ben Zobrist moved to the top of the list this week when his team signed second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera. That could merely push Zobrist from second back to his former super-utility role. The signing of Cabrera, a former shortstop, also could prompt the Rays to trade Yunel Escobar from that position.

But at least the teams in baseball could find a way to slot versatile infielder/outfielder Zobrist into their lineups. Add in that he can be a free agent a year from now and he's a prototypical trade candidate in the Rays' familiar method of restocking with young talent.

That's all nearly as obvious as the rebuilding Phillies dealing staff ace Cole Hamels and - once he shows he's healthy this spring - former ace Cliff Lee. That market could heat up in earnest once Scherzer and Shields make decisions, though an enterprising team with the requisite young talent could make a preemptive strike.

The Colorado Rockies aren't as obvious a seller but their two premier players – shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and outfielder Carlos Gonzalez – are clear trade candidates to fill many significant lineup needs across the game.

Other unmet needs: The continued angst among fans of several supposed contenders is more apparent than concern shown by the front offices. Still, plenty remains to be done. For example:

--Orioles manager Buck Showalter long has said he'd love to visit the family of every player he's considering adding. He's doing just that with free agent outfielder Colby Rasmus. Baltimore got away with lying in the weeds last winter before scooping up 2014 home run champ Nelson Cruz and a similar bargain – Rasmus? Nori Aoki? – would help chances of defending their AL East crown.

--San Francisco seems to find a way in October but getting there again won't get any easier with Pablo Sandoval and Michael Morse gone via free agency.

--Boston's acquisitions so far haven't matched the pitching it traded away beginning last summer.

--Oakland has been in sell mode – Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss, Derek Norris -- since its disappointing fade from the AL West lead and the wild-card game, leaving general manager Billy Beane's reputation as the dominant reason to believe the A's aren't finished maneuvering.

The A-Rod watch: That's what the third baseman – and whether that's even his position anymore is part of the intrigue – seems to enjoy most.

The Yankees are looking more warily at the guy they hope has enough left after a year's suspension to be their 2015 designated hitter now that Chase Headley has been signed to hold down third base for four years.

So far – and to the extent onerous contracts like Rodriguez's, CC Sabathia's and Mark Teixeira's will allow – GM Brian Cashman has been working with a philosophy of younger and cheaper.

Didi Gregorius comes from Arizona to be Derek Jeter's successor at shortstop and second base could end up in the hands of prospects Rob Refsnyder or Jose Pirela.

All will be overshadowed, though, by the certain circus that will accompany Rodriguez's arrival. And the only way it goes away is if he does – or if he somehow manages on-field production that's even more massive than the distraction his mere presence creates.

Happy New Year.

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