It's late January, typically the moment for the greedy, the stragglers, the dregs and those who got poor advice to finally figure out where they'll be playing baseball for the rest of the year, and look at what we've got: a whole team, ripe for the picking.

View photos Yoenis Cespedes is the top free agent still left on the market. (AP) More

And by a whole team, I mean an entire roster's worth of legitimate major league players who, if assembled, certainly wouldn't be the worst in MLB this season. Which is crazy if you think about it, because one month from today, pitchers and catchers will have reported to all but five camps, and a week after that, every player will be in uniform.

Perhaps someone blinks in this game of chicken and the supply glut that has ballplayers right next to oil barrels in the commodity game starts to rebalance. In the meantime, though, it only seemed right to assemble this 31st team – to show how in this offseason of record spending, a large swath of worthy players remain homeless.

Certainly this team has its flaws. For one, I'm its general manager. And also, there's that whole matter of it not existing in real life. Though that does allow me to think wishfully in naming it.

So let's call them the Montreal Expos.

These Expos have a good lineup, an iffy rotation and a patchwork bullpen. They don't take enough walks, don't strike out enough hitters and don't have a manager. They do have a Canadian, however, so that papers over at least some of the flaws.

To give a sense of how good this team was last season – and how good it might be this season – I used the Wins Above Replacement metric from FanGraphs. No matter its flaws, it's a useful tool to illustrate around how good a team full of orphans might be. A team of replacement-level players would theoretically win about 29 percent of its games or about 48 wins. My 25-man roster combined for 27 WAR last season, putting it at around a 75-win team, give or take five wins on each side.

While this year's Expos are projected to combine for just 20.5 WAR by FanGraphs' Steamer projections, this isn't a team by which Montreal would be embarrassed. So tidy up, Olympic Stadium, and get that costume to the dry cleaner, Youppi!

Here are your 2016 Montreal Expos.

1B: Justin Morneau

2015 WAR: 0.5

2016 WAR: 0.4

Why? Because the return of the Expos needs a face, and Morneau is one of the five best hitters ever to come from Canada. More than that, when the vagaries of concussions aren't sidelining him for months at a time, he still swings a potent bat. He's not the MVP he once was, not at 34 years old, but he's the sort of hitter few teams would be embarrassed to slot into the middle of their order.







2B: Howie Kendrick

2015 WAR: 2.1

2016 WAR: 1.8

Why? Because there aren't many hitters as consistent as Kendrick, and at least you know what you're getting from an important position. Over the past five seasons, Kendrick finished with a batting average between .285 and .295, an on-base percentage between .325 and .347, and a slugging percentage between .397 and .464. He doesn't walk, and at 32, he could fall off a cliff. Of course, this is a fake team, so we don't have to worry about that, let alone giving up a draft pick to sign him.







View photos Ian Desmond's struggles last season haven't helped his free agency. (AP) More

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