With the Kansas City Royals' stunning World Series victory over the New York Mets last night, the 2016 MLB offseason is officially underway and all teams will begin to negotiate with their impending free agents on Monday.
Below are key dates to consider as the offseason begins to take form.
The following is provided by MLBTradeRumors.com:
- "Nov. 2: First day of an exclusive five-day negotiation window, which all teams have with their free-agent-eligible players.
- Nov. 6: Final day for teams to extend qualifying offers to free agents. Qualifying offers must be submitted by 5pm ET.
- Nov. 7: Players become eligible to sign with any team.
- Nov. 13: Deadline for players to accept or reject qualifying offers. Players must formally make their decision by 5pm ET.
- Nov. 9-12: GM Meetings are held in Florida. While not as active as December's Winter Meetings, the groundwork for many trades and free-agent signings will take place here, and a few moves figure to be completed.
- Dec. 2: Deadline for teams to decide whether or not to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. The free agent market should expand to some degree on this day, albeit with relatively minor names.
- Dec. 7-10: Winter Meetings in Nashville. These four days are among the most chaotic of the year for those who follow trades and free agency - often even more so than the days leading up to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline."
Click here for the full list of impending free agents this offseason.
A few notable MLB clubs to also keep in mind are the Kansas City Royals, New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox.
The Royals will have Alex Gordon, Johnny Cueto, Ben Zobrist, Alex Rios, Chris Young, Ryan Madson, Franklin Morales and others hit free agency shortly after their World Series win, so general manager Dayton Moore will need to get to work quickly and decide who the team should keep for 2016 and beyond.
The Mets, after a crushing World Series defeat, will watch Yoenis Cespedes, Daniel Murphy, Tyler Clippard, Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Bartolo Colon and Jerry Blevins, among others, hit the open market. Cespedes was the key aspect of their second half surge and Murphy was their best player in the postseason. The Mets will need to address holes in their lineup and bullpen if they fail to re-sign a number of these names.
Toronto had its most successful season since 1993 and they're now under new management as team president Mark Shapiro officially took over today. The Blue Jays could lose up to three of their starting pitchers - David Price, Marco Estrada and Mark Buehrle - so they'll need to be active on the free agent/trade market to fill those voids. They'll also likely be losing a few relievers. The good thing is that their lineup is set for 2016, so there won't be any work to do among the team's position players.
And finally, the Boston Red Sox endured another losing campaign and experienced a changeover in management with the hiring of Dave Dombrowski and the departure of Ben Cherington. The Red Sox expect to be active on both the trade and free agent markets as Dombrowski will look to move the onerous contracts of Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. They also have a number of questions to answer with their starting rotation, which lacks an ace and was one of the worst in the MLB this past season. Boston's arsenal of prospects could net them a top starter, so keep an eye on that as the offseason progresses.
Stay tuned for around the clock updates.
