The vast majority of the major offseason moves have already been made, though there are still a few top notch free agents waiting to be signed. The deadlines to offer free agents arbitration and to tender contracts to players with less than six years of service time have passed, ditto the always fun Winter Meetings. The offseason doesn't end there though, here is a list of important date still to come…
- January 5th – 15th: Teams and players file for arbitration. More than 150 arbitration-eligible players are still without contracts for the 2011 season.
- January 18th: Salary arbitration figures are exchanged.
- February 1st – 21st: Salary arbitration hearings are held. Most of those 150+ players will agree to a deal beforehand and avoid a hearing.
- March 2nd – 11th: Players in their pre-arbitration years will have their contracts renewed by their team at any amount (as long as it exceeds 80% of their salary from the previous year) during this time.
- March 28th: Deadline to release players with non-guaranteed contracts without having to pay them their full 2011 salary.
