If you follow professional sports at all, you’ll note the fine line between fact and fiction. It’s great to speculate about what teams and players are likely to do, but to posit it as truth is irresponsible at best. I’d argue that columnists, experts and beat writers that float baseless stories do more to ruin the credibility of the media.

As the baseball hot stove heats up it becomes harder to sort out the fact from the fiction. It’s one thing to float baseless trade rumors for click bait and it’s another to imagine what if, or pretend to be a GM and play with rosters.

Guessing where top flight free agents will land is fun. This offseason is different because the most significant free agent, Shohei Ohtani is available and unfortunately, he’s pretty mum on the subject of where he wants to play. However, every fanbase can imagine squeezing him onto their roster. Stories run every day as to each team’s likelihood of signing him. Likewise with what teams would be willing to part with to acquire impending free agent, Juan Soto.

Despite nobody foreseeing the Cardinals being the first in the pool, they went out and signed three free agent starting pitchers. Or rather, two guys on the wrong side of 35 signed with the disappointing Cardinals, Lance Lynn, Sonny Gray, and Kyle Gibson. This is an undisputed fact, but the jury is out on whether this is a good move. They also retained starter Miles Mikolas whose career has been on a steady decline since his surprise coming out party in 2018 (18-4 and 283 ERA). Over the past 4 162=game seasons, he’s exceeded 200 innings three times, but his performance beyond “inning-eater” has suffered.

Another fact is that the Cubs only have Kyle Hendricks, Justin Steele and Jameson Taillon under contract for the 2024 season. The rest of the staff is unproven (at best). They have to replace Marcus Stroman somehow and the list of candidates is as long as Bob Scanlan‘s right arm. Until anyone signs on the dotted line, we can only guess what the Cubs will do.

Soto’s immediate future is as uncertain as Ohtani’s because of his contract status and teams’ ability to put together an attractive package for the Padres and their willingness to take a chance on him re-upping in 2025. This uncertainty hasn’t stopped the experts from suggesting the wildest deals.

Nationally, the rumors surrounding the future of Sox (default) ace, Dylan Cease appear to be centered on one or two teams, but the reporting really isn’t any sounder. I’m a little surprised that first in line, Carlos Santana hasn’t signed his 13th free agent contract in 8 years.

Another couple of fun facts, Brad Ausmus signed on as the Yankees bench coach and outfielder Oscar Gonzalez was claimed off waivers by the Yankees. More speculation abounds about legit outfield talent coming to the Bronx, but so far these two are the only sure things.

Despite the change in weather, this is a beautiful time of year.