5 names who could make a splash at the winter meetings

On Monday, top executives from Major League Baseball, along with a smattering of players and agents, will arrive in Nashville for the 114th installment of the winter meetings, a four-day window for the game's most important decision-makers to conduct some business.

Here are five major players that could make a splash this week:

Dave Dombrowski

The Red Sox didn't bring Dombrowski over from Detroit to guide them through a rebuild, as evidenced by his earlier trade for closer Craig Kimbrel and the record-shattering seven-year deal he gave David Price earlier this week. Still, despite his insistence that his "major moves are done," Dombrowski may view the winter meetings as an opportunity to unload some of the messy contracts foisted upon him by Boston's previous regime. Wielding an impressive stable of prospects, Dombrowski could look to dispose of either Hanley Ramirez or Pablo Sandoval by packaging one of them with one (or more) of his most promising minor leaguers, and Nashville is the perfect venue to broker a deal.

Scott Boras

The relatively slow-developing market for free agents should be at least partially attributed to Boras, whose three most prominent clients - Chris Davis, Wei-Yin Chen, and Ian Kennedy - remain unemployed as the winter meetings loom. His patience is hardly surprising, as Boras should take his time to formulate unique negotiation strategies for three players expected to command very different deals (Davis should get nine figures, Chen will likely get at least four years, and Kennedy might struggle to get more than two). When top executives from all 30 teams arrive in Nashville with their checkbooks, Boras will presumably look to pounce.

Andrew Friedman

On the heels of losing free-agent targets Zack Greinke and Jeff Samardzija to division rivals, the Dodgers' brain trust was already making a splash in Nashville before the meetings were officially underway. By late Sunday night, the big-spending Dodgers, led by Andrew Friedman and GM Farhan Zaidi, had reportedly agreed to a three-year deal with Hisashi Iwakuma and were said to be making progress on talks to acquire Aroldis Chapman. The Dodgers have holes, money, and are starved for a World Series title. Look for Friedman to make up for a slow start to the offseason with a big finish to end the year.

Jason Heyward

There's a reason the best outfielder to receive a deal through free agency so far is Nori Aoki - everyone else is waiting for Jason Heyward to sign. As a former All-Star and three-time Gold Glove Award winner who hit free agency before his 27th birthday, Heyward will set the market for this year's ridiculously loaded crop of outfielders, with a $300-million contract very much a possibility. Both the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels, two of baseball's economic titans, have been identified as potential suitors for Heyward, and there ain't no place like Nashville for a bidding war. Once Heyward signs, his fellow outfielders - Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton, and Alex Gordon, to name a few - should follow suit shortly thereafter.

Brian Cashman

It's probably foolish to presume, after one winter of fiscal restraint, that the Yankees' longstanding team-building philosophy has really changed. Cashman pretty much kept his wallet in his pocket last offseason, and the club's 2015 roster featured more young players making an impact than we're accustomed to, but with CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and Carlos Beltran coming off the books next year, the Yankees may opt to flex their financial muscles once again. Their rotation needs work, they have no second baseman, and, well, they're the Yankees, so they could go out and sign Jason Heyward next week just because.