All of these MLB free agents have to sign eventually

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It’s Jan. 5. Normally, the offseason would be slowing down right about now, and there would be one or two free agents worth paying attention to left on the market. We’re going to see free agency ramp back up instead, as there are still a number of legitimate options you and teams still care about left to sign. Chris Davis led the majors with 47 homers last year, and is also the league leader since 2012 with 159. Alex Gordon will be 32 in 2016, but he’s also coming off a five-year stretch with a 121 OPS+ and plays absurd defense in left. Justin Upton has been even better offensively (126 OPS+ since 2011) and is all of 28 years old. Yoenis Cespedes hit 35 homers in 2015, and while his range is occasionally suspect, the dude can throw a baseball about as hard as he can hit one.

They aren’t alone, either. Wei-Yin Chen threw 191 innings in 2015 and has a 110 ERA+ in four years in the majors -- Mike Leake, who signed for $80 million, has a 101 career mark, and Chen has been far more consistent than $90 million man Jeff Samardzija. Chen is younger, too. Ian Desmond’s 2015 was rough, but he plays quality defense at short and usually hits more than well enough for the position. Dexter Fowler and Denard Span are still out there, Doug Fister is waiting around for the right rebound contract... there are so many useful players left to sign.

And they’ll all start signing soon, once someone budges and gets one of those outfielders (or Davis) off the board -- well, OK, maybe Cliff Lee won’t sign, but we covered that already. Span and Fowler and co. probably aren’t going anywhere until the likes of Gordon and Upton and Cespedes set the non-Heyward portions of the market. And since spring training is just over a month away, and there are still teams with needs out there, everything will be set back into motion soon, once they shake off the holiday lull.