MLB offseason dates every Braves fan should know: Free agency, Winter Meetings

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The offseason is shaping up as a busy one for the Atlanta Braves as they work to improve the roster, retain key players, and get ready for another championship challenge in 2025.

Dates and details for your 2024/2025 MLB offseason calendar

Teams finalize their plans over the next six weeks, but nothing happens until the end of the World Series. While nothing obvious is going on, the Braves front office team is making sure they’re ready to meet these deadlines.

Teams may make trades the day after the Series ends.
Veteran players on expiring contracts immediately become free agents but can’t sign with or talk to other teams until the end of the quiet period. The quiet period is an exclusive five-day window when a player’s current team is the only one allowed to negotiate with its free agents.
Any options (team, player, vesting, or mutual) must be picked up or declined in that five-day window.
Teams who plan to make a qualifying off (QO) to a departing free agent must do so during the five-day quiet period.

The Atlanta Braves have an option on four players. I expect the club to:

Pickup their $16M option for Marcell Ozuna, $8M option for Travis d’Arnaud, and $7.25M option on Aaron Bummer.
Decline Luke Jackson’s $7M option and pay his $2M buyout.

Joel Sherman reported that this year’s qualifying offer currently projects at $21.2M.
Max Fried will receive the only Braves QO this year,

Atlanta Braves Starter Chris Sale is the favorite to win the NL Cy Young Award and be named the NL Comeback Player of the Year. / Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images

Here come the awards

MLB’s All-MLB Weekend starts on November 13 and ends November 17 at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

During the 2024 All-MLB Team Show on November 14, MLB will announce:

The All-MLB First and Second All-MLB Teams
The 2024 AL and NL Hank Aaron Award
The 2024 Mariano Rivera & Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year
The 2024 Comeback Players of the Year and
The 2024 Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award

Chris Sale is the current favorite to win the NL CY Young Award and be named NL Comeback Player of the Year, and Raisel Iglesias' performance could earn him the NL Reliever of the Year Award.

November 14 is also the deadline for Max Fried to accept or reject his QO.

Arbitration-eligible Players

Teams must nontender any arbitration-eligible player they aren’t offering a contract by November 17. If the team doesn't notify the player, it must offer a contract by the first week of January. I expect the Braves to nontender Huascar Ynoa and perhaps a couple of other arbitration-eligible players.

Players with more than three years service time or Super Two players are eligible for salary arbitration. The player and team negotiate to reach an agreement. If they can't agree on a deal by mid-January, both sides submit a final offer, and an arbitration hearing is scheduled in early February.

Some teams continue to negotiate until the hearing date, but the Braves are a file and trial club; once they’ve submitted an offer, they stop negotiating. The only Braves player eligible for arbitration a third time is Ramon Laureano.

GM and Owners Meetings

MLB has traditionally held three winter meetings, a GM meeting during the first week in November with an owners meeting a week to ten days later, and the Winter Meeting the first week in December.

MLB’s All-MLB Weekend programming starts on Thursday and ends on Saturday, so it's possible the Owners Meeting will happen earlier that week, and they’ll shoehorn the GM meeting the week before. Those meetings aren’t big news events, but the Winter Meeting in Dallas.

The Winter Meeting

This year’s Winter Meeting runs from December 8 to December 11, with business meetings on December 9, the Amateur Draft Lottery to determine the order of the 2025 draft on December 10, and the Rule 5 Draft on December 11.

Members of the media look on during the MLB Rule 5 Draft at the 2022 MLB Winter Meetings / Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images

The Rule 5 Draft

The Rule 5 Draft allows teams to select players they feel are ready for a chance in the majors who have yet to advance in their current organization. The draft has two phases, Major League and Minor League,

Eligible players were either drafted at 18 or younger and haven’t been added to the 40-man roster in their first five seasons or players signed at 19 or older who haven’t been added to the 40-man after four seasons. To prevent a player from being taken, his current team must protect him by adding him to the 40-man roster.

When a Major League team selects a player, they pay the player’s current organization $100K and must add the player to their 26-man roster. The drafted player must remain on the 26-man roster or Major League injured list all season or be offered back to his former team for $50,000.

The Minor League phase is usually more active because there’s no requirement to add the player to any Major League roster. Teams pay a fee of $24K to the player's current organization, and are free to assign players level of their new team's Minor League system.

The same players are eligible if they aren’t on the 38-man Triple-A roster in their current organization.

1. AAA Players

• Outfielder Justin Dean

• Reliever Domingo Gonzalez

2. AA Players

• Catcher/1B Javier Valdes

• 1B Bryson Horne

• Utility man Geraldo Quintero

• Infielder Cade Bunnell

• Infielder Yolbert Sanchez

• Utility man Cody Milligan

• Outfielder Brandon Parker

• Outfielder Jesse Franklin V

• Starter Luis De Avila

• Reliever Rolddy Munoz

• Reliever Trey Riley

• Reliever Jonathan Hughes

• Reliever Peyton Williams

I doubt the Braves add any of them to the 40-man roster.

The Braves have five players in the lower minors who are Rule 5 eligible but are more likely to move during the Minor League portion of the draft.

3. A+ and Low A players

• Outfielder Stephen Paolini

• Starters Luis Vargas and Jared Johnson

Low A:

• Reliever Adel Dilone

• Outfielder Kadon Morton

The Braves won't be active in the Major League Phase of the Rule 5 Draft but could use the Minor League Phase to restock the system

One last thing…

The current International Draft Signing Period closes December 15, but it’s only a holiday sabbatical because a new signing period opens on January 15.

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