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Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb could be fallback plans for teams that come up short in their bids for Yu Darvish and Jake Arrieta. With that in mind, it’s fair to ask: Are Lynn and Cobb essentially obliged to wait for Darvish and/or Arrieta to sign before they can land their own respective deals?

The Giants completed their outfield upgrade, at least on paper, by agreeing with free-agent center fielder Austin Jackson on a two-year, $6 million deal on Monday.

Presumably, J.D. Martinez will be playing baseball somewhere this year. Even if he ends up signing for fewer years than he desires, Martinez undoubtedly will be among the top earners of his current free-agent class.

The Hot Stove is open for business, and news, trade buzz and rumors are in full swing. Here’s the latest from around the big leagues.

Red Sox ace Chris Sale’s leadership has extended this offseason to one of the most important arms in the organization.

Former Royals right-hander Yordano Ventura, who died in 2016, meant much more than the numbers and baseball achievements, and a couple of dusty pennants he helped win. Ventura was a symbol of what was possible.

Figuring out who the surprise teams of ’18 will be is the difficult part. But there are plenty of serious candidates. Here’s a look at five who appear to have a legitimate chance to jump into contention.

Look what you started, Lane Johnson.

Have the Brewers jumped into the fray for top free-agent starter Yu Darvish? The pitcher himself ensured his nearly two million Twitter followers were pondering that question on Sunday night.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America will announce the 2018 Hall of Fame class at 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday on MLB Network, and this is shaping up to be an inordinately large class.