It's January 23. Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes still isn't an official free agent, even though it feels like we've been waiting for ages. Any time now. Any time now.
Cespedes will become a free agent at some point. Then the bidding will begin. Who will be in on the bidding? Ken Rosenthal indicates three teams appear to have the most interest:
Sources: #Tigers, #Marlins, #Cubs most active on Cespedes. All three tracking him closely in DR. Still no word on when he will be FA.
It's hardly a surprising list. The Marlins have already said that they'll be "aggressive right to the point of stupidity" on Cespedes. Cepedes himself has told the media that the Cubs are making a push. The Tigers have been linked for some time. These probably aren't the only three teams who are monitoring Cespedes, but they're apparently the three teams that like him the most.
For a little while, Cespedes has been playing in the Dominican winter league. According to the best numbers I can find, he's so far gone 5-for-35 with a homer, zero walks and ten strikeouts. For the sake of reference, this is a league in which Pedro Feliz has 14 walks and 22 strikeouts. Cespedes might just be a little bit raw. We'll see if that has any effect on his price.