Nationals Arm Race

"… the reason you win or lose is darn near always the same – pitching.” — Earl Weaver

2013-14 Off-season Baseball Calendar

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Now that the WS is over, the official off-season begins.  Since a number of key dates related to player movement are based on the end of the world series, now we can officially list the key upcoming dates.

This document is also available in the links section to the right-hand side of the blog (see the 2013-14 MLB Off Season Calendar link).  I’ve uploaded it to Google XLS.  A few of the dates listed here are estimates or based on the day they occurred last year.  The XLS has urls to back up some of these dates.

Date Event Nats-specific Impact/Winners/Notes
Sept 29th, 2013 Last day of regular season No Nats post-season for 2013
Oct 1st, 2013 Beginning of 2013 Post season (NL WC game).  End of Year BBWAA award ballots due (prior to beginning of post season) Some Nats may get some mentions
Oct 21rd, 2013 Sporting News Comeback Players of the Year AL and NL Mariano Rivera and Francisco Liriano winners
Oct 27th, 2013 Roberto Clemente Award given Carlos Beltran 2013 winner; Zimmerman best Nats candidate
Oct 28th, 2013 Fielding Bible Awards given No Nats mentioned
Oct 29th, 2013 Rawlings AL & NL Gold Glove Announcements Span, Desmond finalists but no awards
Oct 30th, 2013 Last actual day of 2013 World Series; official end of 2013 season Boston wins Game 6 and takes the 2013 WS 4-2
Oct 31st, 2013 (WS end + 1) Official start of FA period (8am CST the day after the last game of the WS)
Nov 2nd, 2013 (WS end + 3) Team and player options must be decided three days after the end of the World Series.  (this may be WS + 5 by 2013)
Nov 2nd, 2013 Clubs have to re-set their 40-man rosters, moving all 60-day DL players back to active. Nats currently sit at 39/40 with two 60-day DL guys; someone has to get dropped unless the FA’s don’t count against this list.
Nov 2nd, 2013 HoF “Veterans Committee” releases ballot.
Nov 4th, 2013 (WS end + 5) 5pm: Deadline to make Qualifying offers for your own Fas (average of top 125 salaries or $14.1M for 2014).  5 days after end of WS was 13.3M for 2013.  Nats highly unlikely to offer Qos to their two Fas.
Nov 4th, 2013 (WS end + 5) End of “Quiet Period.”  Teams have “exclusive” negotiating rights with their own free agents during this period.
Nov 4th, 2013 (WS end + 5) 5 days after WS ends: Free agent filing period and exclusive negotiating window ends at 12:01 a.m. ET. Free agents can sign with any team. Haren, Tracy only Fas for Nats in 2013.
Nov 2013 est MLB Comeback Players of the Year AL and NL
Nov 4th, 2013 (WS end + 5) Free Agency granted to all eligible Minor League free agents (5 days after the end of the WS).  Eligibility done on service time; 6 years ML service for college draftees or 7 years ML service for HS draftees or free agents under the age of 18. Plenty of significant, long-serving Nats farm hands hitting MLFA this year.
Nov 4th, 2013 Wilson Defensive Player of the Year awards, given by MLB to best defensive player on each club. Span or Desmond likely in the mix but unlikely to win
Nov 5th, 2013 MLBPA announces “Players Choice” awards: Player of the year, Comeback Player of the year, etc
Nov 7th, 2013 BBWAA Award Nominees announced on MLB networks
Nov 8th, 2013 Sporting News Executive of the Year announced
Nov 6th, 2013 Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Awards Desmond, Harper may get some attention here.  Werth also
Nov 11-13, 2013 GM Meetings, Orlando, FL for 2013
Nov 11th, 2013 (WS end + 12) 12 Days after WS ends: Players must accept or reject Qualifying Options No Nats likely getting Qos
Nov 11th, 2013 AL, NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Awards Roark get some honorable mention votes?
Nov 12th, 2013 AL and NL Manager of the Year
Nov 13th 2013 AL and NL Cy Young Zimmermann may get some top-5 votes but not likely.  Strasburg?  Doubtful
Nov 14th 2013 AL and NL Most Valuable Player Werth may get some top-10 votes
Nov 14-15th, 2013 Owners Meetings, Chicago for 2013
Nov 20th, 2013 Day to file reserve lists for all Major and Minor League levels.  In other words, Last day to add players to 40-man to protect them from the Rule5 Draft
Dec 2nd, 2013 Midnight: Deadline for teams to Tender contracts to arbitration eligible players.  If not tendered, those players immediately become free agents.   This is the non-tender deadline for arbitration eligible players No real non-tender scares for this year’s arbitration eligible list of Nats.
Dec 2nd, 2013 Last day for teams to offer 2014 contracts to unsigned players.  (same thing as the non-tender deadline above?)
Dec 9th, 2013 Last day to request outright waivers to assign player prior to Rule 5 Draft
Dec 9th-12th 2013 Winter Meetings, Lake Buena Vista/Orlando, FL
Dec 3rd, 2013 HoF “Veterans Committee” officially releases ballot that was made public ??????
Early December, 2013 Baseball America announces its Executives of the Year
Dec 4th, 2013 MLB Balloting results announced for Hall of Fame Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting
Dec 4th, 2013 MLB announces winners of 21 “GIBBY” awards (greatnest in Baseball yearly awards)
Dec 12th, 2013 Rule 5 Draft.  Occurs at Winter meetings
Dec 31st, 2013 Deadline for BBWAA ballots for HoF voting.
Jan 9th, 2014 Hall of Fame BBWAA voting announced; the HoF class of 2014.
Jan 15th, 2014 Salary arbitration filing period
Jan 18th, 2014 Salary arbitration figures exchanged
Feb 1-21, 2014 Salary arbitration hearings (actual hearing date per player picked at random), Phoenix AZ
Feb 12th, 2014 Voluntary Spring Training reporting date for Pitchers, Catchers, Injured players
Feb 15th, 2014 Voluntary Spring Training reporting date for non-pitchers and catchers
Mar 2-11th, 2014 Contracts of unsigned players who are not yet eligible for Arbitration may be renewed
Early March 2014 First Spring Training Game for the Nats
March 13th, 2014 Last day to place a player on unconditional release waivers and pay 30 days termination pay instead of 45 days.
March 27th, 2014 Deadline to request unconditional release waivers without having to pay the player’s full salary or $100k bonus for certain types of veterans
March 31st, 2014 2014 Season Opener; Opening Day 2014; active rosters must be reduced to 25 players and 40-man rosters must be established
March 31st, 2014 Opening Night 2014: ? Vs ?
April 1st, 2014 Traditional Opening Day (Cincinnati)

 

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