No thaw in sight for free-agent freeze-out

The Angels signed Justin Upton (pictured) to a new five-year, $106 million contract in November, it remains the largest contract signed so far this off-season. (Chris Carlson / AP) To tank or not to tank.

That’s the question several teams had to ask themselves as the 2017-18 offseason began, and with a week to go until spring training camps open, it looks like there are almost as many tankers as tank-nots.

Many theories exist for the lack of action on the free-agent market, but the most obvious is teams don’t want to spend big money if they don’t expect to contend.

They’re simply following the lead of the Cubs and Astros, who mostly stayed out of the big-name free-agent market while they…