What Happens When During the Offseason

The confetti has fallen, the Texas Rangers are World Series champions, and the offseason is upon us. Unlike the other major sports, the baseball offseason is usually a slow drip, which means there are a lot of transaction and roster deadlines between now and when pitchers and catchers report in the spring. Here are some key dates and events to keep in mind as you navigate the coming winter.

November 2

All XX(B) players officially become free agents

XX(B) free agents include all players with six or more years of service on an expiring contract who ended the season on the major league roster or injured list, excluding those with contract options or opt outs, as their decision doesn’t have to occur until later. There are a few exceptions to the rule, as due to clauses in their contracts, players with NPB or KBO experience like Shintaro Fujinami need not be at six years of service to reach free agency, as Fujinami will.

November 6

Free agents may sign with new teams

While free agency is filed for right away, players signing with new clubs must wait five days to sign with a new team; they may only re-sign with their current teams in the immediate aftermath of the Fall Classic. There’s rarely much activity in the period just after free agency opens, with players understandably preferring to wait things out and truly test the open market. That said, deals do happen on occasion. For instance, Edwin Díaz signed his monster deal with the Mets four days after last year’s World Series wrapped.

Option and opt-out decisions affecting 2024 are due

Joining the initial group of free agents will be players with declined player, mutual, or club options. Teams don’t have to wait on option decisions until the last possible day, although many do. Additionally, teams may make moves involving players with pending option decisions, as the Braves did in trading Jake Odorizzi to the Rangers on option deadline day last year.

Deadline for teams to tender eligible free agents a qualifying offer

This year’s qualifying offer is reportedly $20.325 million, the highest figure ever, calculated as the mean of the average annual values of the top 125 contracts in the majors.

As a reminder, only players who were in a single organization all season and haven’t received a qualifying offer in the past are eligible to receive one this year. That means players like Jordan Montgomery and Eduardo Rodriguez (if he opts out as expected), will be unencumbered by a qualifying offer as they look for new contracts.

All players on the 60-day IL must be activated

This is why we’ve already seen so much 40-man churn, with teams preemptively passing players through waivers to make room for 40-man additions via both injury list activations and Rule 5 Draft protection, the deadline for which falls later.

November 14

Players must make their qualifying offer decisions

Players have 10 days after receiving the qualifying offer to decide whether or not to accept it, but that doesn’t mean it’s their only option. Players weighing the qualifying offer may sign with their current teams for a larger deal, or sign elsewhere, as Tyler Anderson did with the Angels on QO deadline day last offseason.

If the qualifying offer is rejected, teams signing that player will be subject to the loss of a draft pick, with the spot depending on whether or not the team pays into revenue sharing and whether or not the team is a luxury tax payor. The player’s former team receives draft pick compensation depending on those two factors and the value of the signed contract, with $50 million being the cutoff line; more valuable contracts earn a higher draft pick.

Deadline to add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft

As a reminder, Rule 5 eligibility is as follows for any player not on a 40-man roster:

• Signed at 18-years-old or younger, has been in the organization for five seasons
• Signed at 19-years-old or older, has been in the organization for four seasons

There’s always a large number of players added to 40-man rosters each offseason, with some teams turning over large portions of their roster to accommodate all the prospects they want to squeeze on. The Guardians went so far as to add 10 players two offseasons ago, most notably Steven Kwan.

November 17

Deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players

Contract values don’t necessarily have to be agreed to on this date, though some are, as teams will occasionally adopt a “take this or you’re non-tendered” approach with players on the bubble. Any arbitration-eligible player may be non-tendered and is free to sign with any team. If the player has under five years of service time, he remains under club control for his new team until he’s reached the requisite six years of service. For example, Dominic Smith was non-tendered by the Mets last offseason and signed a one-year deal with the Nationals, but he remains arbitration-eligible this offseason instead of hitting free agency again. A few trades normally take place around this time as teams look to at least get something in return for players they may otherwise non-tender, as the Twins did in shipping Gio Urshela to the Angels last offseason.

December 4-7

Winter Meetings

This year’s Winter Meetings are in Nashville, and while there are a couple of events that take place during them (more on that later), it’s mostly an opportunity for teams to meet face-to-face with players, agents, and each other and get contracts signed and trades agreed to. It’s also a great opportunity for journalists and people like me to network, mill about lobbies, and refresh Twitter/X waiting for news.

December 5

Amateur Draft lottery

The second-ever draft lottery will be held the second day of the Winter Meetings, and while worse teams generally have a better shot at earning one of the top six draft picks, there are a couple of nuances. For one, teams that pay into revenue sharing may not receive lottery picks in consecutive years, which means the Nationals will pick 10th or 11th despite finishing with the league’s fifth-worst record. Additionally, while luxury tax payors are eligible to earn lottery picks, those who don’t win the lottery and are in the top tier of luxury tax overages have their top spot moved back 10 spots. This year, that only applies to the Mets.

December 6

Rule 5 Draft

Any team with an open 40-man spot can participate in the Rule 5 Draft, and teams with multiple spots may select multiple players if they choose. A player selected in the Rule 5 Draft must be on the roster or IL for the entire season or else he returns to his former team. However, teams may not circumvent this by simply placing a player on the IL all season, as the player must be active for 90 days to lose his Rule 5 status, or else he has to finish out that minimum the next season.

January 12

Arbitration-year contracts are agreed to

This goes down to the wire for most contracts, with any deal not agreed to by the deadline technically set to go to arbitration, though it’s a soft deadline as discussions may continue. That said, many teams take a “file and trial” appraoch, cutting off all negotiations at the deadline and choosing to go to a hearing if a deal isn’t agreed to.

Early-to-mid February

Arbitration hearings occur

Any outstanding contract disagreements are heard in arbitration, where a panel of three arbiters determine if the player will earn the salary he files or the lesser salary the team wants to pay instead. The arbiters may not compromise or choose a value other than one of the two submitted.