He might get a start or two and some pinch-hit appearances, but I don't think they'll give him regular at-bats. Even with Buxton not hitting, he's their best defender in center, and I doubt they're going to sit Rosario or Hicks in favor of Kepler.

The age concerns are overblown. He's worked in the industry for a dozen years, spending time in the commissioner's office and with four different baseball ops departments. Stearns had a ton of responsibility in Houston's front office as the sole AGM, and he's well-respected around the game. It's a fine hire in my eyes, though I did think he came off a bit nervous in his intro presser -- not that I necessarily blame him for that.

I'd be fine with the oft-suggested idea that you can expand rosters all you want but have to designate a smaller number of players for that day's active roster -- maybe give each club 3-4 extra players... a couple bench bats and an extra arm or two

I have a hard time seeing him elsewhere. If he's recovered from his hip surgery, and the Giants watch him throw and see 91-92mph or something, I won't be the least bit surprised for a return. If he's still in the upper 80s and San Fran is only comfortable on a minors deal, then I think another club will guarantee a few million.

I don't expect them to sign anyone who I would call likely to hit 30 homers. They could make a run at a buy-low guy like Morneau and hope for that outcome, or hope Rasmus gets there, but no one that'll be expected to. In trades, sure. They have tons of desirable pitching, so it just depends what they're willing to give up. If they're serious about Marcell Ozuna, he could conceivably hit 30, or at least 25+. He hit 23 in 2014.

For all the flak Amaro takes, I think he did well to eat money to enhance returns on some of the veterans, and I think the Hamels return looks good on paper at least (though it's too early to slap any kind of grade on a trade of that magnitude).

They're two games above .500, 3.5 from a Wild Card spot and 4.5 from the division with a not-yet-prime-aged Mike Trout and a mid-prime Kole Calhoun, plus young pitching coming in the form of Heaney and Newcomb. I mean, I get the frustration over their inconsistency, but they can be plenty good in 2016.

At this point, it's close but he's probably ahead of Correa for me, yeah. Final 2 weeks will have a big impact on that race -- it's been a fun year for rookies in both leagues.

They were willing to go to $160MMish for Lester, so it's not like they're shy about making big offers -- If Price lands elsewhere, I can see Zimmermann, Cueto, Greinke being more affordable options that could end up there, then maybe a second-tier guy (Kennedy?)

I do expect the Giants to sign at least one pretty notable starter.

Any that are available are on the table, Price included.

Too early to say where -- off-the-cuff prediction, which should include the caveat that I haven't thought about this too extensively yet... four years in the Nick Markakis to Jhonny Peralta range -- $44-52MM. Lots of teams will need 2B/3B help -- Angels, White Sox, Yankees, Padres to name a few.

Well, Greinke and Kershaw have been better, so that might play into him not winning it if/when he doesn't.

Marlins will be in on pitching -- they want to acquire controllable arms via trade, and they'll also be open to adding a veteran FA presence into the rotation as well. I'll be surprised if 2016's rotation consists of candidates that are all already in the organization.

I sure hope so -- can everyone see this?

Cool -- maybe it'd be better not embedded onto the page and instead linked off to a separate page next week. I'll look into it post-chat. Thanks

I think so, yeah. As I said in my "Three Needs" post on them, they have a clear strength in developing bats (in part due to Coors, but they produce hitters that can hit away from Denver as well) and a huge weakness in developing pitching. Yet, they rarely deal from that strength to acquire pitching. And the last time they did (with the exception of the Tulo trade), they went after a big ground-ball arm in Jordan Lyles. Nothing against Lyles, but I'd like to see them pursue strikeouts more heavily.

That is the offseason waiver priority, and it carries into the first month of the season. The per-league waiver priority is only used during the season.

Add a real catcher and figure out second/third base. Improve the terrible defense. I think they'll be in better shape in 2016 so long as Eaton and Melky sustain their second halves. I'd like to see them add a right-handed arm to the rotation to replace Samardzija as well.

Parks and Rec. Not close.

I can see them trying to shed the remainder of Wilson's contract. I expect Weaver, RIchards, Santiago and Heaney to be in the rotation next season... Shoemaker there until Skaggs returns, I suppose. I'm not expecting them to pursue much starting pitching this winter, though for what it's worth Tim Dierkes and I were talking about this not 24 hours ago, and he disagrees, saying he thinks they could move Wilson and look for a nice mid- to upper-tier arm. I don't see i with the luxury tax concerns and needs at second base, probably third base (not sold on Kubitza/Cowart) and in left field.

Improve the bullpen and get a clean slate to start from. I know A's fans are tired of hearing this, but I think they were terribly unlucky for much of the season. Their run differential was exceptional and suggested that they should've had a much better record, as did the BaseRuns projection system and a number of others. There are, of course, human variables that make any mathematical or statistical projection impossible for 100 percent accuracy, plus just pure randomness, but I think there's some nice talent in Oakland.

I expect an extension.

There's no great way to answer these types of questions since we see only a glimpse of what goes on behind closed doors. I've spoken to people who have worked with Jerry Dipoto and said good things about him, though, and I think he's made quite a few good moves, though he of course has misses as well (Grichuk in the Freese trade looks regrettable). I'd like to see him get another shot, and he fits Seattle's desire for an experienced GM.

Seems like some people are having issues here. I'll look into this and maybe next week try hosting it off-site as opposed to embedding it into a post. That might be part of the issue, because I don't believe Tim had these problems when he hosted last week. Sorry about that. I'd say just refresh the page if it happens.

I think Kennedy is a no-brainer for the QO. He'll reject without much other consideration.

Bossman Jr. has quietly had a nice rebound in his limited time with San Diego, though I'm not sure that means they want to run him out there as a starter. He's had some BABIP luck in his favor and is still whiffing a ton (albeit less than in his terrible Braves years). He might still be more of a platoon/part-time guy for me.

Gyorko and Alonso have some semblance of value, though Gyorko's contract negates quite a bit of it. If they're looking to move someone young that has some value, Myers would be my pick, perhaps, but his injuries have been problematic.

All in all, they're in a tough spot, because the guys who SHOULD be trade candidates haven't performed well enough to maximize their value. If they're going to bring in upgrades via trade, it's going to have to be by trading Tyson Ross and/or Craig Kimbrel, I think.

Eddy Julio Martinez is a free agent right now, though he'd be a couple years away. There's not any sort of predictable timeline for when top Cubans are going to make the jump to Major League Baseball (or try to, anyway). Yulieski Gourriel and Alfred Despaigne would garner huge attention, but there's no telling if or when they'll make the move.

You say that as if Dave Dombrowski never attempted to do that. He signed Nathan, traded for Soria, Veras, Krol... signed Joaquin Benoit... Dombrowski made plenty of efforts to fix it, they just came up short often. Avila may approach it differently, but he was involved in all of those decisions as well.

Parks and Rec is my favorite sitcom since Seinfeld, I think, so it's going to beat just about everything folks. I love The Office, though. Less enthusiastic about Veep. It's ok.

I'll have a better one once I start trying to talk to some international scouts on his 2015 season. We'll try to put together a profile on him like we do other top free agents, so this is a better question to ask down the line.

I'm not sure how you could love someone who isn't impressed by that. I'd disown family members if they brushed that off.

The only thing holding Greinke back from being an easy $150MM+ candidate is that he's going into his age-32 season. The age-36 year has historically been as far as most clubs are comfortable guaranteeing a pitcher's contract.

But, Greinke's having a historically great year, so $150MM still seems possible me -- hell, $150MM over five years would even seem plausible. What the Dodgers are willing to offer... they're probably not even sure on that yet. Money's hardly an issue for them, though.

Breaking Bad trumps just about everything.

I'd expect them to be one of many teams interested. Most of free agency is impossible to predict at this point, and Samardzija's even more difficult than most. They've been intrigued with him in the past, though, I believe, and the need for rotation stability there is pretty clear.

Sorry for the 60 seconds of torture you've been put through in the free chat you're hanging out in.

Mat Latos fits that bill.

That's the thing I find odd about reports that they might move a starter this winter -- none stand out as obvious trade candidates to me. Dombrowski could go for broke and try to make Archer the type of controllable arm the Sox want to add, but I can't see Archer being moved coming off this season with this type of control. Moore's value is down due to injury. Ditto Smyly and Cobb. Not sure Erasmo has a ton. Odorizzi might be the most logical, but he's not even arb-eligible yet and is quite good, so the return would need to be huge.

Find another Ray Searage reclamation project, get a better solution at first base after they non-tender or trade Pedro Alvarez. Consider trading Melancon because money.

Happy it's going over well. Will hopefully smooth out some kinks next week. I've got to run for now, but remember you can always submit questions to our Mailbag (mlbtrmailbag@gmail.com) which runs on Mondays. Otherwise, you can find me on Twitter: @Adams_Steve and I'll of course be back next Tuesday for another.

Enjoy your week, everyone!