Think of urgency like butane to the Hot Stove. The more urgent a team is to win or rebuild, the more motivated it is to act.
That is why the most natural matches in trades are those on the opposite end of the spectrums — a go-for-it team acquiring win-now (often expensive) players from a rebuilding club trying to add prospects, shed payroll and speed up their process.
So going into the winter meetings this week, we offer Hardball’s 1-to-30 list ranked from those most pressing to go for it to the least. This is different from listing best-to-worst rosters.