MLB free agency 2023: Ten teams to watch as free agency picks up - ESPN

For nearly a month now, baseball's offseason has operated at a relative standstill. That soon will change. Because the hard reality of every winter in baseball will win out, regardless of the pace at which transactions occur: Teams need players, and players need teams.

Yes, some will take their time, happy to exert leverage. Others, though — fearful of a market moving unexpectedly and leaving a player without a job or a team with no decent options to fill holes — will end the posturing and parrying and get deals done.

There are plenty of teams whose offseasons hinge on the right addition. The Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays are chasing the biggest star in the sport, free agent two-way player Shohei Ohtani. The San Diego Padres are entertaining the notion of trading star outfielder Juan Soto. The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies are vying for National League East supremacy. The St. Louis Cardinals are trying to avoid mediocrity and the irrelevance that accompanies it.

And yet there are 10 teams whose winters could be even more fascinating than any of the aforementioned. Here they are, in alphabetical order, along with a transaction that makes sense for where they intend to go.

2023 record: 101-61, first place, American League East

What makes them fascinating: Baltimore already vanquished the AL East. But with Tampa Bay still competitive, Toronto wanting to improve, New York vowing changes and Boston bringing in a new chief baseball officer, the best division in baseball looks like it's going to get even better. So for as good as Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez were in the second half, and for the full year of John Means they expect to get, the Orioles can't rest on their laurels. They