In the first part of the scripted off-season, Blake Snell opted out, Robbie Ray and Wilmer Flores opted in, Donovan Walton was released, three departed as free agents (Curt Casali, Mark Canha, Michael Conforto), and all four on the long term disabled list gained 40-man spots (Jung Hoo Lee, Wilmer Flores, Tom Murphy, Keaton Winn). The roster has 21 pitchers, 3 catchers, 8 infielders, and 7 outfielders (39).
The rest of the scripted events are as follows.
Nov. 5-7: GM meetings, San Antonio. Buster is taking his newly named GM sidekick Zack Minasian along to this. Just as a complaint, I wish every team would adapt the POBO title for its top guy, or else have all teams return to the use of GM as their top guy. It is very confusing to keep track of which team uses which title for the top guy!
Awards season: Platinum Glove (Nov 8), Silver Slugger (12th), Hank Aaron, All-MLB, reliever, DH, comeback (14th), ROY (18th), Manager (19th), Cy (20th), MVP (21st), Heart and Hustle (22nd). The Gold Gloves are already announced, so you all know that Matt Chapman and Patrick Bailey won one of those.
Nov. 19: players must accept or reject their Qualifying Offers (does not apply to SFG). See https://x.com/JeffPassan/status/1853558700646301985 for a full list.
Nov. 19: major and minor league “reserve lists” due. The former amounts to putting any minor leaguers who might disappear in the Rule 5 draft onto the MLB 40-man roster, so they can’t be grabbed. Vulnerable players are those signed at 18 five years ago, or those signed at 19 four years ago. Players who might gain a highly coveted 40-man spot include:
• pitchers Carson Seymour, Carson Ragsdale (but not Carson #3, Whisenhunt), Will Bednar, and Ryan Murphy.
• infielders Brett Auerback, Christian Koss, Will Wilson, Luis Toribio, Aeverson Arteaga (who lost 2024 to an operation)
• catcher Onil Perez
• outfielders Victor Bericoto, Jairo Pomares, Hunter Bishop
Quite possibly, just the two Carsdales? This is always a really interesting thing to watch, as it is our chance to learn the team’s internal evaluation about its own prospects. There’s also a minor league phase of the rule 5 draft, with players given a roster spot with the River Cats immune from going in that second level draft (but not the first).
Nov. 22: contracts must be tendered to anyone not already signed for 2025.
This includes players with less than 3 years of service time, who are fairly cheap, and so are usually retained. But Kai-Wei Teng and/or David Villar might not be offered a 2025 contract? This also includes players with between 3 and 6 years of service time, who are typically much more expensive, whose pay will be determined later by salary arbitration. For the Giants, there are four, presented along with MLBTR’s guess as to what their salary might end up being:
• Mike Yastrzemski (5.128 years of service time), $9.5M
• Monty Wade (5.035), $4.7M
• Tyler Rogers (5.034), $5.5M
• Camilo Doval (3.071), $4.6M
Here MLB doesn’t appear to be very logical, as anyone who isn’t offered a contract is actually being released. So why is the deadline for contract offers a few days AFTER the additions for R5 protection? Well, whatever, as of this date, the 40-man rosters are frozen until the R5 draft has taken place.
Dec. 9-11: Winter meetings. Signings and trades are often announced during these meetings, or shortly thereafter as the last contract details get hammered out. The lottery for draft order for the weakest 2024 teams takes place on December 10th. Of more interest to 2025 roster construction is the Rule 5 draft, held on the final day of the meetings.
After these meetings, there is no more schedule to the offseason, except that salary arbitration talks end around January 9. In other words, after the Winter Meetings, the Good Ship MLB enters the dreaded Boras Doldrums.
Pitchers and Catchers Day is approximately February 12th. Our boys’ first spring training game will be February 22nd, against Texas.
