MLB free agency is the official reset button for Major League Baseball, but when does it officially begin and how does it work?
With the World Series officially over, one would think that baseball fans would be able to take a moment and collect their breath. However, baseball doesn’t work that way; there is no time for rest, sleep, or otherwise.
As soon as midnight rolled around on Sunday night (Monday morning), the MLB Hot Stove officially fired up and the starting gun sounded for the offseason. Twenty-eight teams that had been sitting at home and thinking about how things would shake out over the winter received the green light to begin plotting and scheming on how they could turn around their respective team’s fortunes.
Here’s everything you need to know about the MLB offseason and how free agency works.
When does MLB free agency begin?
Well, technically MLB free agency has already begun. On the stroke of midnight on November 2nd, the door opened a crack, allowing teams to negotiate with their impending free agents with the hopes of extending players before they hit the open market.
The door only opens a crack because teams will only be allowed to haggle with their own free agents, and not others for the first five days of free agency. These teams have an exclusive opportunity to retain their players and work out a deal.
On November 7th, that window officially closes and the flood gates will open. From that date forward, all players and teams are allowed to freely negotiate and sign with one another. In other words, the highest bidder takes home the prize.
How does MLB free agency work?
In addition to the five-day exclusive window, there are a few small things that fans need to keep in mind about MLB free agency.
- Teams have until November 6th to extend qualifying offers to impending free agents, but only to players that spent all of 2015 with their respective team. Essentially, it is a guaranteed one-year, $15.8 million contract if the player accepts it. If he declines the offer, the player is free to sign elsewhere.
- Teams signing players that declined qualifying offers must forfeit a draft pick in the 2016 draft to that player’s former team. The signing team will lose their highest pick in the draft (unless it is a protected pick). The pick given to the former team will fall in a sandwich round between the first and second rounds of the draft, with the order of the sandwich round again determined by 2015 record.
- If a player rejects a qualifying offer and remains unsigned by the time of the following season’s draft, that player will no longer have the draft pick compensation attached to them.
- Players who were traded mid-season are not eligible for qualifying offers and can sign with any team without fear of compensation picks.
- In addition to standard free agents, arbitration-eligible players can become free agents if their respective teams choose not to tender contracts for 2016. Teams have until December 2nd to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players. It has already become known that Greg Holland will not be tendered a contract by the champion Kansas City Royals after tearing his UCL in his pitching elbow. Others will likely join him.
MLB free agency can be frenetic, and the rumor mill will be churning throughout the winter. This is the chance for a team to remake themselves and could result in a quick shift of power for an aggressive organization. As such, we’ll be aggressive in our coverage here on FanSided.com, so stay tuned.