Latest Updates on MLB Free Agency as Big Names Disappear

Congrats to the San Diego Padres, who on Sunday snatched up the best remaining free agent prospect in the majors—pitcher James Shields.

Shields, a former Cy Young Award winner, joined the Padres on a four-year, $75 million dollar deal to round off what has been a stellar offseason that should cement the National League West club right in the thick of the World Series hunt.

But while San Diego raises a toast to its success and hopes Shields’ age doesn’t start to catch up with him, there are still unsigned players looking for teams, as well as teams looking to add that one piece needed to bring home the title.

Unfortunately for the teams still looking, the remaining free agents aren’t exactly the greatest group of players ever assembled.

With Shields, Jon Lester and Max Scherzer all signed, the superstar pitchers are off the market. The pickings aren’t much better for teams looking for position players either, with Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval, among many others, already signing new deals.

So with less than two months until the Cardinals and Cubs kick off another MLB season, here are a couple of updates on the free agency picture for 2014-15.

Looking international

I hate to break it to you, America, but there will come a time when the most talented prospects for what we call our pastime won’t be from our own shores.

It has been leaning that way for years now, with the Central American countries seemingly contributing a never-ending number of players to the majors. In more recent years, it has been Japan that has seen its fair share of prospects land stateside and make an impact.

Most of the major free agent players aren’t available anymore, but for teams still looking, their best bet might be the foreign market.

When listing the amount of players who have defected from Cuba in recent years to become stars in the MLB, the numbers are almost staggering.

Looking to join the ranks of Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes and Aroldis Chapman is second baseman Jose Fernandez. The 26-year-old defected back in October and—pending the typical Office of Foreign Assets Control delays—could end up being a big signing for a club.

Let's not forget about fellow Cuban defector and second baseman Hector Olivera, who hasn’t received as much hype as Fernandez but is available to sign today and could be just as fruitful for the teams interested.

Although Japan’s top two pitchers, Kenta Maeda and Chihiro Kaneko, won’t be making the leap to the majors this year, they are still worth keeping an eye on come the end of next season.

From middle of the pack to front-runners

OK, so maybe front-runners isn’t the right way to describe the San Diego Padres, but with the signing of Shields, they became arguably the biggest winners of the offseason.

Despite finishing 17 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the West and 11 games out of the NL wild card, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t see the Padres making a major jump in 2015.

The addition of Shields is just the icing on the cake of a fruitful rebuild for San Diego, who have, this offseason alone, also acquired Wil Myers, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Derek Norris and Brandon Morrow.

This group of players makes the Padres scary out west in a division that has been dominated in recent years by the money of the Dodgers and the unrelenting, World Series-winning sorcery of the San Francisco Giants.

We have seen this sort of overhaul fail miserably before with the Toronto Blue Jays of 2013 and the Florida Marlins of, well, seemingly every year coming to mind, but the Padres look to be a different monster.

With the exception of Shields and Kemp, the Padres additions aren’t superstar players in the mold of those that the other aforementioned teams had acquired. They are good, sometimes great players who might have a better shot of syncing on the field than the Blues Jays' and Marlins' free agent acquisitions did.

If they can, the Padres could be yet another NL West team to keep an eye on come October.