As the offseason continues, interest in the second and third-tier players increases as the top players continue to find their new homes and bags and bags of money this off-season.  This is exactly the case with Jeff Francis is coming off an injury filled shortened season.  Teams that missed on bigger name free agents have now turned their attention to Francis and others like him.  The Mets, Nationals, Pirates, Rangers, and Yankees all have varying degrees of interest in the lefty Francis according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com.

In November, Crasnick named the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers and Houston Astros as teams that at the time were interested in Francis.  Some of these teams may have moved on to other free-agent targets while teams like the Brewers have traded for other pitchers (Shaun Marcum and Zack Greinke) and maybe done adding to their respective rotation.

Francis posted a 5.00 ERA in 104 1/3 innings for Colorado this season.  Francis missed all of 2009 as he had shoulder surgery.  He became a free agent when Colorado declined his $7.5 million option for the upcoming season.

Any team that signs Francis will probably sign him to an incentive-laden deal and will most likely be a one-year deal with a possible 2nd year player option.