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Like most of us, baseball teams have holiday shopping on their minds in December. The Winter Meetings begin Sunday in San Diego and while there, clubs will make trades or lay the groundwork for more deals later in the month.

While teams value the talent and cost control of prospects, they often can’t resist parting with them to acquire veterans who could make the difference in getting to the postseason and winning once there. In the last decade, highly rated phenoms such as Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, Yoán Moncada and Dansby Swanson have changed addresses at the Winter Meetings. Later December deals included Josiah Gray, Wil Myers, Luis Patiño and Trea Turner.

Several clubs have needs to fill and young talent to swap, so we could see similar movement this month at the Winter Meetings and afterward. Here are eight teams looking to contend that have the prospect currency to make some moves.

Joey Votto has been cultivating his newfound passion for chess this winter … although it doesn’t seem to be going swimmingly: “I got flattened by a 9-year-old,” the Reds star said.

Carlos Santana immediately showed the Pirates the type of fun-loving clubhouse presence they are getting when he danced his way into his introductory press conference.

While the Team USA lineup looks stacked for when the World Baseball Classic begins in March, there are still some question marks around who would make its rotation. On Tuesday, two of those spots were filled.

MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo looks at Rule 5 Draft picks who were returned to their original clubs and found success.

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