MLB Free Agents 2012: 5 Teams with the Most Work to Do

As the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals celebrate their 11th championship, other teams are gazing into a long and important offseason. 

As players prepare to be pampered and pried from their former teams, some teams will be more active than others.  Which five teams have the most work to do during this year's offseason? 

Which five teams will work hard this winter to better prepare themselves for next year?  Let's find out.

Chicago Cubs

Cubs fans endure disappointment like no fan base in all of sports.  Look no further than the 2007 and 2008 seasons where they won the division but got swept in consecutive years in the LDS. 

In the past three seasons, they have won 83, 75 and now 71 games.  Their salary was the sixth highest in all of baseball last year, at a little over $126 million, so it isn’t like management isn’t trying.

Enter Theo Epstein.  The new Cubs president has great familiarity dealing with curses.  Epstein looks witch doctors in the face and gets his players fitted for rings.  The man who ended the Boston drought arrives at Wrigley with a task of equal difficulty. 

The first order of business is figuring out whether or not the Cubs plan on keeping last year’s manager Mike Quade. 

Expect Theo to make some major moves this offseason, as he’ll look to bolster the Cubs' rotation and to add a Prince name Fielder.

Seattle Mariners

On July 5th of this year, the Seattle Mariners were 43-43 and just 2.5 games behind LA and Texas for the division lead.  Then the bottom fell out.  The Mariners lost 17 games in a row, the longest losing streak in franchise history. 

No shock that this made the Mariners major sellers at the trade deadline.  They dealt away hurlers Doug Fister and Erik Bedard.  They’ll need to fill the rotation behind ace Felix Hernandez and youngster Michael Pineda. 

More importantly, they need a bat, or two or three.  Seattle was last in runs scored and batting average in all of baseball last season.  They'll especially need help as Ichiro Suzuki is finally showing signs of a decline.  

The Mariners have finished last in the AL West six of the last eight years.  They will need to be active if they hope to improve from last year's 67-win season.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Matt Kemp: 39 HRs, 126 RBIs, 40 SBs

Rod Barajas, James Loney, Andre Ethier: 39 HRs, 174 RBIs, 4 SBs

LA's All-Star center fielder needs help in a major way.  The Dodgers were in the bottom half of the National League in just about every offensive category.  They need to add a bat to help protect Kemp in that order. 

Pitchers Jon Broxton and Hiroki Kuroda are both free agents.  If either is not signed, expect LA to go after a starting pitcher as well.  One has to wonder if all the owner’s public strife will impact players' willingness to go to the Dodgers.

New York Mets

The Mets have successfully rid themselves of Carlos Beltran (getting pitcher Zach Wheeler in exchange) and “battering ram” Francisco Rodriguez. 

However, that Jason Bay contract is just God-awful.  The Mets paid Jason Bay over $18 million for a .245 average, 12 HRs and 57 RBIs last year.  Yuck. 

They need to turn their attention to re-signing All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes.  I wrote earlier that Jose Reyes was the fifth-rated free agent this offseason.  With the quick re-signing of CC Sabathia, money will be tossed at the Dominican leadoff hitter.  The Mets will have plenty of competition in signing Reyes.

Whether or not the Mets re-sign Reyes, they will be extremely active during the offseason.  They recently announced that they will be moving in and lowering the outfield walls.  This move is an attempt to improve an offense that hit only 108 home runs, which was 26th in the league.

Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies had an off year in 2011, which led them to deal ace Ubaldo Jimenez midway through the season.  They received quite the handful of valuable prospects in return, but nothing that can help immediately.  The Rockies need to come away from this offseason with some pitching help.

It’s no secret that the Rockies can hit, as they play in the tin can known as Coors Field.  However, their pitching is holding them back in the worst way.  Only the miserable Baltimore Orioles had fewer quality starts than the Rockies.  They were also 26th in ERA, at a 4.43 clip. 

The Rockies need to help themselves this offseason by adding some pitching and possibly looking into signing Aramis Ramirez.