Say Hey, baseball: Who will sign James Shields?

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Make your jokes about the “Big Game” nickname or the handful of poor playoff starts if you must, but you should also recognize that James Shields just had a run as one of the best pitchers in baseball for four years. Nobody threw more innings (932) than Shields from 2011 through 2014, and he ranked 13th in the majors in ERA+ in that stretch at 124, right alongside the likes of Cole Hamels, Felix Hernandez and Stephen Strasburg, and ahead of Adam Wainwright, David Price and recent $210 million man, Max Scherzer. That doesn’t mean Shields will be quite that good going forward, but he was better than all but a few pitchers for a four-year stretch.

No one seems to be quite sure what the next four years will look like, however. Shields is 33, and still a free agent even though it’s Jan. 21. His market once involved a number of teams, but now it’s not quite so clear who is even interested. Jayson Stark ran down a list of 14 teams who either have been connected to Shields, should be connected to Shields, or simply make sense for him, and not one of them seems to still be realistically in his market. The Blue Jays want him, but they have roughly $6 million left in their 2015 budget. The Diamondbacks are supposedly trying to shed salary, not add $20 million or so. The Red Sox apparently don’t think he’s a fit for Fenway Park, or, at least, not a $100 million fit. The Padres have avoided any move that costs them their first pick in 2015, the Yankees don’t seem interested in spending on a pitcher this winter, the Giants have closed the door on Shields ... who is going to get him?

We’re less than a month from the starting of spring training now, so we’ll find the answer to that question soon. He’s not going to get the $100 million he initially hoped for, but a four-year deal for $70 million to $80 million could certainly still happen, and someone like the Blue Jays could make the money work. They might only have $6 million available for the 2015 budget, but Mark Buerhle’s $20 million salary comes off the books next winter, and the Jays will only have $43 million in commitments to start the offseason. Much of that will go to arbitration eligibles, but there is space for Shields in the future, if they can work something out in the present.