Some players will hide it. (Jayson Werth declined to answer most questions about free agency until, one day, he asked an onlooker, "Where do you think I'll go?") It can consume others. (Shane Victorino started chatting about a five-year extension two springs ago, and it hung over him.) It is unimportant to the most aloof. ("If I have a situation where there is a chance to win," Roy Halladay said, "I might pay them.")