The 2016 Major League Baseball season ended Wednesday at Progressive Field in Cleveland with one of the most memorable Game 7s in the history of the sport. It took four-plus hours, 10 innings and a rain delay, but the Cubs defeated the Indians, 8-7, to overcome a 3-1 series deficit and break their 108-year World Series drought.
One of many heroes for Chicago was left fielder Ben Zobrist, who delivered a tie-breaking double off Indians reliever Bryan Shaw in the top of the 10th. That was the 10th hit of the Fall Classic for Zobrist, who took home World Series MVP honors. After winning a title with the Royals last November, Zobrist joined the Cubs in free agency on a four-year, $56MM deal during the offseason. The Zobrist acquisition will go down as one of seemingly countless great moves by the Cubs’ front office, led by president and chief architect Theo Epstein. Having now put so-called curses in Boston and Chicago to rest, Epstein has cemented his place in Cooperstown.
While Epstein, general manager Jed Hoyer and the rest of the Cubs’ executives will savor this triumph, their work won’t stop. With the major league offseason already starting Thursday, the Cubs will spend the next several months trying to put their roster in position to repeat in 2017. Meanwhile, the majors’ other 29 franchises will attempt to make the moves necessary to overtake the Cubs. Maybe one of those teams will even sign next fall’s version of Zobrist during the upcoming winter.
With that preamble out of the way, here are some of the offseason’s key dates:
- Nov. 3: Beginning at 9 a.m. ET, teams will have an exclusive five-day negotiation window with their impending free agents.
- Nov. 7: By 5 p.m. ET, teams must submit qualifying offers to their upcoming free agents. The QO is worth $17.2MM, up from $15.8MM last year. This is also the deadline for clubs to exercise their 2017 options over players whose contracts include them.
- Nov. 8-10: General managers’ meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz. While not as active as December’s Winter Meetings, the groundwork for many trades and signings will take place here, and a few moves figure to be completed.
- Nov. 8: Free agents become eligible to sign with any team.
- Nov. 14: Players must choose to accept or reject qualifying offers by 5 p.m. ET. Those who decline will become free agents.
- Dec. 1: The collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union expires. Click here for the latest on CBA negotiations.
- Dec. 2: Deadline for teams to decide whether 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. 4-8: Winter Meetings in National Harbor, Md. This period is 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 non-waiver trade deadline. MLBTR will provide extensive coverage while the Winter Meetings are in effect. The meetings with conclude with the Rule 5 draft on Dec. 8.
If you’d like to prepare for the madness ahead, check out the free agent list Steve Adams and Tim Dierkes have been updating since March 2015 (please let us know via the contact form if there are any omissions). MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz’s arbitration projections are a must-read every year, as is the writing staff’s Offseason Outlook series. We’ll also check in on some soon-to-be available players with our Free Agent Profile series, and Tim will rank the 50 best free agents of this year’s class by potential earning power and predict where each will sign. Although the open market won’t be rife with appealing free agents this offseason, the next few months will still feature plenty of excitement. We’re looking forward to covering the action.
Congrats Cubs fans (and congrats to Indians fans too). What an exciting finish to the 2016 season
What an incredible ending to a great season!
“Nov. 7: By 5 p.m. ET, teams must submit qualifying offers to their upcoming free agents. The QO is worth $17.2MM, up from $15.8MM last year. This is also the deadline for clubs to exercise their 2017 options over players whose contracts include them.”
Is this also the deadline for a player option as well (ex. Cespedes who I don ‘t believe officially opted out yet). If this is the deadline for a player option, can a team still offer him a QO if he opts out at the last minute?
Been prepping since July.
so the CBA expires well after QO’s are issued? if the CBA modifies the QO system, does that work retroactively then if someone is issued a QO and then signed = or are teams going to have to wait because the player was signed under the previous agreement and the team still loses a draft pick?
Good question. I would guess if the QO system changes, it would be in effect next offseason and not this one.
From the sounds of it the CBA will rollover this offseason. Effects don’t sound like they’ll take place until next year.
What a game last night!!I know American football is most dominant sport in the country… but wow.. baseball still an amazing sport!!
Yep, though football is having issues with ratings this year. Sunday’s WS Game 5 had higher ratings than Eagles/Cowboys Sunday Night Football.
American football is awful. Look who has the best records the cowboys and raiders. Its just awful.
Really? Was it Nielsen ratings that reported it? Pretty impressive for a baseball game to beat Sunday night NFL on ratings . It barely happens
Yes it was reported
What’s the deadline for teams to set their 40-Man Roster for the Rule 5 Draft?
Took a while to find, but it’s November 18.
Great game last night! A fantastic end to what was an otherwise subpar postseason. The offense really saved Maddon, who made multiple mistakes in the last two games. Congrats Cubs!
I think this is going to a pretty tame postseason. The free-agent market isn’t great (apart from closer and DH), contending teams don’t have a lot of holes to fill and the teams that are rebuilding don’t have many assets left to trade. Unless a team like the Marlins, Rays, White Sox or Royals decide to start over, there will not be many big trades to talk about.
I think the Tigers could be a team to keep your eye on when it comes to trades. Al Avila stated that they want to get younger and leaner. Possible trade candidates are JD Martinez, Victor Martinez, Ian Kinsler and Justin Upton.
I doubt their owner will allow a selloff of any kind. He has stated multiple times that he wants to win a world series while he owns the franchise and he is not getting any younger. However, if they can get a good pitcher for either JD or Justin they should go for it. Apart from the Kinsler trade, the Tigers made some very bad deals the past few years.
I’m only going by what Al Avila stated. Those were some players that I thought could bring a lot of value.
November 8th is perfect so I don’t have to get election junk shoved in my face–at least there’s some baseball left, oh and TWD.
What a specular end to the 2016 season!
And thanks to MLBTR for the excellent summary of the hot stove season to come. Might I suggest you tag this as a feature article? Questions about what happens when will come up over and over as they always do.