The 2017 Major League Baseball regular season has concluded. We've got a month or so of great playoff baseball coming up, but for 20 fan bases, the eyes are already on the offseason. Let's take a quick look at some things to know.
Key Dates
Free agency: As of 9 a.m. ET the day after the World Series ends, all eligible players will become free agents. There is then a five-day period where teams can submit qualifying offers. Once that five-day window has passed and most players who were tendered qualifying offers reject them, free agency is truly free.
General manager meetings: The front offices will get together Nov. 13-16 in Orlando. Expect to hear about pace of play, extended netting and many other housekeeping type matters.
BBWAA awards announced: Nov. 13, we find out that Aaron Judge wins the AL Rookie of the Year while Cody Bellinger takes home the NL Rookie of the Year. The following day, the Manager of the Year awards are handed out. Nov. 15, it's the Cy Youngs and then Nov. 16, the MVPs.
Winter meetings: Dec. 10-14, the annual Winter Meetings take place in Orlando. Sometimes it's a hot bed of player movement and others it's over-hyped, but we definitely need to pay attention.
Top Free Agents Available
The free agent class isn't quite as explosive as next year's, but there are some big names here.
The pitchers: There's Yu Darvish and Jake Arrieta in terms of frontline starters. Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb figure to hit big paydays as well. Some others: Andrew Cashner, CC Sabathia, Jaime Garcia, Jeremy Hellickson and John Lackey (if he doesn't elect retirement).
The closers: There's one big-name closer to hit free agency and it's Wade Davis. Fernando Rodney and Matt Belisle are also going to be available. Some setup names: Addison Reed, Pat Neshek, Luke Gregerson, Jake McGee, Tony Watson and Juan Nicasio.
The Royals: Former Royals are on the block as well, with Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain likely to cash in pretty big.
The big bats: Other bats available will be J.D. Martinez, Jay Bruce , Carlos Santana, Zack Cozart, Todd Frazier and Neil Walker. There's some depth here, too, especially among players toward the end of their career, such as Curtis Granderson, Matt Holliday, J.J. Hardy, Carlos Beltran and Jose Bautista. Jon Jay, Carlos Gomez, Carlos Gonzalez, Eduardo Nunez, Eric Sogard, Howie Kendrick, Logan Morrison, Alex Avila, Jonathan Lucroy and several others could be impact players as well.
Options
The Pirates have a $14.5 million club option on Andrew McCutchen and if they don't pick it up, he'll be a free agent. He's really the only big name where there's a question. Players like Chris Sale, Madison Bumgarner, Greg Holland and Craig Kimbrel have club options that will undoubtedly be picked up while many others (Hardy and Bautista, to name two) are obviously not going to be exercised. The Indians won't be getting Michael Brantley's $12 million option, in all likelihood, so we can probably add him to the list of free agents.
Opt-outs
Back in late August, my colleague Mike Axisa took a great look at some of the interesting opt-out clause decisions looming. We could be adding the likes of Johnny Cueto, Masahiro Tanaka and Justin Upton to the free agent class.
Top Trade Candidates
The biggest name here is that of Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton. We ran down the situation earlier on Monday, so give that a look if interested.
I mentioned McCutchen's option above, but it's feasible to see the Pirates pick it up and then shop him. He's not the perennial MVP candidate he once was, but he hit .279/.363/.486 (121 OPS+) with 30 doubles, 28 homers and 11 steals this season. He'll be 31 next year. A team hoping to be a contender with a hole in the outfield (hey, Giants!) could do much worse on a one-year rental.
I've peddled the reasons before that the Blue Jays could trade Josh Donaldson, but he also wants to stay and they could extend his contract. Still, teams -- specifically the Cardinals -- seem very interested, so he's someone to watch.
Surely teams will continue to call the Rays on Chris Archer, but among their rotation it seems like Jake Odorizzi would be much more attainable.
Would the Orioles entertain a Manny Machado trade? I doubt it, but he's one year away from free agency.
As always, lots of other names will surface once we actually get through the postseason.
For now, consider this a quick primer for what's to come after a hopefully incredible roller coaster ride this next month.
