After the Dodgers secured their second title in five years, the offseason is officially underway. Transactions should begin again today. Teams are permitted to begin making trades. There’ll be a host of waiver claims as clubs clear space from their 40-man roster, largely in tandem with the necessary reinstatement of injured players from the IL. Teams and players have five days to decide whether to exercise any contractual options.
Free agency technically opens today, but there’s a five-day window for exclusive negotiation between teams and their own free agents. We’re not getting a Juan Soto signing anytime soon, but we could see a handful of smaller extensions as teams try to keep some players from testing the open market.
MLBTR’s winter coverage will kick off later today with our preview of the Top 35 Trade Candidates. We’ve already released projected arbitration salaries from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz and taken a position-by-position look at the upcoming free agent class while previewing the qualifying offer decisions for pitchers and position players. Our Top 50 Free Agents post will be published on Monday evening after the finalization of option and QO calls.
OCTOBER 31: Free agency begins for eligible players, but they aren’t permitted to sign with other teams for at least five days. Free agents no longer count against their previous teams’ 40-man rosters. Trades of players who were on the 40-man roster reopen for the first time since last summer’s deadline.
NOVEMBER 3: Gold Glove winners announced.
NOVEMBER 4: Free agents are eligible to sign with any team. All players or teams with contractual options/opt-out clauses must make their decisions by this evening. Teams have until 4:00 pm Central to decide whether to issue qualifying offers to eligible free agents.
NOVEMBER 4-7: General managers meetings in San Antonio, Texas. The GM Meetings typically lay the groundwork for the offseason rather than spurring much roster movement in themselves. They’re nevertheless significant as an opportunity for media to speak with high-level executives, which can shed some light on teams’ goals for the winter.
NOVEMBER 12: Silver Slugger award winners announced.
NOVEMBER 14: Reliever of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year award winners announced.
NOVEMBER 18: Rookie of the Year award winners announced.
NOVEMBER 19: Players have until 3:00 pm Central to decide whether to accept the qualifying offer. If they accept, they’ll return to their previous team on a one-year, $21.05MM contract. Players who accept a QO, like all major league free agent signees, cannot be traded without their consent until June 15. Those who decline the QO are tied to draft compensation. MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk recently covered what each team would receive for losing a qualified free agent and the penalties that teams would pay to sign a player who declined a QO.
NOVEMBER 19: Rule 5 protection deadline. Teams must add players who would otherwise be eligible for the Rule 5 draft to their 40-man roster by this date to keep them out of the draft.
NOVEMBER 19: Manager of the Year award winners announced.
NOVEMBER 19-21: Quarterly owners meetings in New York.
NOVEMBER 20: Cy Young award winners announced.
NOVEMBER 21: MVP award winners announced.
NOVEMBER 22: Non-tender deadline. Teams must decide whether to offer contracts to the arbitration-eligible and pre-arbitration players on their 40-man roster. They do not need to agree to salaries by this date, but there’ll be a flurry of salary agreements as players who might otherwise be non-tender candidates often lock in deals at slightly lesser than projected salaries to avoid being cut loose. Players who are non-tendered immediately become free agents without going through waivers.
DECEMBER 8: Hall of Fame Classic Baseball Committee announcement.
DECEMBER 8-11: Winter Meetings in Dallas, Texas. The Winter Meetings are the offseason’s busiest few days and annually feature ample free agent and trade activity.
DECEMBER 10: Amateur draft lottery. The Rockies and Marlins have the best chance (22.45% each) of securing next year’s first overall pick.
DECEMBER 11: Rule 5 draft. Players selected must stay on their new teams’ active rosters for the entire ’25 season or be offered back to their original organization.
DECEMBER 15: Closing of the 2024 signing period for international amateurs.
JANUARY 9: Teams and arbitration-eligible players exchange salary filing figures. They’re free to continue negotiating beyond this date, though virtually every team treats this as an unofficial deadline to avoid an arbitration hearing unless they sign a multi-year contract.
JANUARY 15: Opening of the 2025 signing period for international amateurs. The majority of the international signings for the year will be announced on this date, as virtually all the top prospects have reached handshake agreements by this point. The notable (potential) exception: Japanese star Roki Sasaki, who has expressed an interest in being posted for MLB teams but would be subject to amateur bonus pool restrictions as a player under the age of 25 if his NPB team makes him available this offseason.
JANUARY 21: Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame announcement.
JANUARY 27 – FEBRUARY 14: Arbitration hearings. Arbitrators must choose either the team’s or player’s filing figure, not a midpoint.
FEBRUARY 12: Voluntary report date for pitchers and catchers. Players from the Dodgers and Cubs, who’ll open the season in Tokyo, could arrive a few days earlier.
FEBRUARY 17: Voluntary report date for other players.
FEBRUARY 20: Spring Training play begins.
MARCH 18-19: Dodgers and Cubs open regular season play with a two-game series at the Tokyo Dome.
MARCH 27: Domestic Opening Day.
Is this the first time the defending world champions opened in another country, not including Canada?
No. The Red Sox opened the 2008 season against the A’s at the Tokyo Dome
Red Sox didn’t win in 2008. The Phillies did. Red Sox won in 2007
I hope you were joking with that comment, if not you are a moron
Right – that would make them the defending champion in 2008.
The question was “is this the first time the DEFENDING world champions opened in another country, not including Canada?”
The Sox won it in ’07 which means in ’08 they were the DEFENDING world champions
Baseball, IMO, really needs to wait until the season is over to do the schedule. The season should open with the World Series winners at home, two days before the season begins and have ring ceremony/banner raising with the entire league and fan base getting to watch.
“Until the season is over”…I’m a longtime baseball fan and I approve this message.
Would definitely probably make unforseen disasters like the Rays stadium situation easier to navigate if no one knows the schedule in advance things could be moved behind the scenes that the public wouldn’t have to know about.
Also it could make for a fun season opener if the two World Series teams from the previous season met on opening day (only happened once, 2016 Mets/Royals)
Should be interesting to see where Jack Flaherty lands. I think his stock dropped a bit after his horrible start yesterday. I’m thinking he’s looking at maybe 3 years, $65M. Dodgers need at least one rotation addition, but I’m not sure it will be him.
I highly doubt 1 inning, specifically in the WS will have any impact on his free agency.
“I highly doubt”…It’s not really just “one inning”. Flaherty has been up and down the whole postseason.
Don’t kid yourself into believing that an especially poor performance while literally everyone(every GM, scout & owner) in MLB is watching won’t “have any impact on his free agency”.
Flaherty has been up and down his entire career. I said this at the 2023 trade deadline Flaherty is hit or miss you really dont know what guy you will get from start to start. His overall talent level probably makes him a solid number 2.
Rather said, if he had shut them down.and thrown 6 shutout innings, he would have increased his value tremendously.
So, yes, his stocked dropped from the potential future’s market price.
Won’t Glasnow be back for spring training
“Be back for spring”..Glasnow will most likely be ready for spring training.
He’s looking to get a head start towards suffering his latest injury. They don’t call him “glas” for nothing.
He was two different pitchers on 4 days rest compared to long days rest in the playoffs I believe that will affect his salary not necessarily the interest in him
The Cubs didn’t draft Buehler out of vandy. Now, they have a second chance to make the best selling jersey of all time!
Thank god. So many of you here need to take some time away, regroup, use the offseason to educate yourselves on baseball, and come back in 2025 with better takes.
…..Texas!
Let the countless searching and scrolling begin with hopes are teams actually attempt to get better
I think the non tender deadline should be moved up at least a week while other players are being signed