Full Transcript for Important Dates to Know for Braves Offseason

teams being able to make decisions on who's currently on their roster. And then, of course, as we know, based off those decisions, that really defines your needs going into the offseason. And quicker than most offseasons, you're going to have to get engaged with other teams to fill as many needs as possible before the lockout looms. What's really standing out to you as kind of the most important first date in November for folks to track? 00:03:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, so everything in the baseball calendar in terms of the all-season kicks off five days after the World Series ends. That has always been the case. Now, of course, we can't point to a specific day on the calendar because we don't know how long the World Series is going to last. It could be four games, five games, six games, or seven games. Whenever the last game of the World Series ends, count five days later, and that is when everything kicks off. That is when teams and players can talk to all 30 players or, you know, players can talk to all 30 teams and teams can talk to all free agents. One thing to remember is that there is an exclusive negotiating window. Teams can talk to their own players right now. And in that five-day window after the World Series and before free agency starts, you can sign contracts with your own players. The Braves could sign Tyler Malley in that period if they could strike a deal. Of course, Tyler Malley has very little incentive to do that and not at least see what the other 29 teams say. But it is possible and it has happened before. So, you know, that's important to know. But yeah, five days after the World Series, that is when free agency technically officially begins. There's some qualifying offer stuff that goes in there as well. Teams have to tell which players are, you know, all the players that are going to be given qualifying offers have to be given those qualifying offers within those five days as well. And then they have 10 days to accept. But yeah, five days after the World Series is the big day. That is when free agency officially kicks off. 00:04:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's important to know that because especially for a team like the Braves who want to continue to contend, but they clearly have several needs they need to address. You know, Tyler Malley, Mauricio Devon, Rysell Iglesias, all three of those players individually, you know, would play significant roles for the Braves next year. But if they don't sign them in that window and they go to talk to other teams, well, then that means that the starting rotation, shortstop, bullpen, those could become even more of needs on top of, you know, obviously, you know, the multiple needs you have in the rotation, the offense and things like that. So that's why it's important to kind of track to see if there's any early signings for the Braves to retain some of their talents that really helped them out this year. And then, of course, once that occurs, so you kind of define your offseason by needs that either are addressed or arise when you take care of your own players. Then you're looking at the GM meetings, which are November 9th through 12th this year. Of course, for many diehards, Christmas come early is always the winter meetings because that's usually when the heaviest activity of every major league offseason occurs. But that's not this year because it's going to be typically is in December. You're not going to see that before the lockout. So the GM meetings basically is this year's winter meetings. And Alex Anthopoulos himself talked about it. The fact that that's really when he feels once teams start talking with each other about what they need, when activity will get going and get going in a hurry. 00:06:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, and. So the GM meetings are always, you know, in November. And like Sean said, they're usually about a month away from the winter meetings. And so a lot of like pre stuff is done. A lot of, you know, we're going to talk, we're going to, we're talking about this now. We'll finish it up at the winter meetings. Obviously, like Sean just said, because of the lockout, there's not going to be a winter meetings almost certainly. 00:06:36 Speaker 4: So. 00:06:37 Speaker 3: It is very possible the GM meetings just turn into the de facto winter meetings this year. Alex has talked about it. One thing I will say, they do happen rather quickly after free agency starts. Let's say, hypothetically, the World Series goes to Game 7, which is on Halloween night. That means the free agency would start five days after that. So basically November 5th. Well, the GM meetings are on November 9th. 00:07:05 Speaker 2: So. 00:07:07 Speaker 3: One thing that might stop it from being all out chaos is because it's so immediate after free agency starts. There's only like four days that potentially four days that separates it. Now, if the if the World Series is a super short one, let's say the Milwaukee just sweeps whoever's in it and it's a four game sweep. And then there's like a week and a half between the start of free agency and the GM meetings. You could see things just go crazy. That would not surprise me at all. Because I do think at some point, I do think we're going to get a crazy run of transactions done in November at some point. Just so teams can get stuff done. We saw it last time there was going to be a lockout in 2021. The last two weeks before the lockout started, there was a ton of stuff done. Because teams did not want to be left holding the bag and having to put together their entire roster after the lockout. So I do think that is very possible. Some of it's going to be when the World Series ends. So we can figure out how much time is going to be between free agency starting and the GM meetings getting underway. But yes, the GM meetings are basically going to be de facto winter meetings this year. 00:08:16 Speaker 1: And you're also going to have some fun because you're going to see the awards going on during the month of

November. You know, there are some for awards like all MLB teams. Of course, Walt Weiss, manager of the year. Stephen's going to be throwing a big block party when they announce who the Gold Glove winners are. That's his favorite line of the Major League Baseball offseason. But all kidding aside, Stephen, beyond the awards, what other important dates are there as we wrap up November? 00:08:40 Speaker 3: Yeah, so the other one is, and this one really kind of finalizes the free agent list, is called the non-tender deadline, which I think is November 20th, if I remember correctly. And what the non-tender deadline basically is, is anybody that's on your roster that is still under the six years of service time, so pre-arbitration or arbitration, they have to be tendered a contract. You still have them under team control, but what you're saying is, I'm going to tender you, I'm going to give you a contract for next year. We're not settling what the number is going to be yet. We're just deciding we are going to keep you under contract. If you tender them a contract, then they go to the next step of the process, which is deciding what the salary is, which happens later and will almost certainly happen after the lockout. If you don't tender them a contract, that player actually goes into the free agent pool. And now is a free agent with all the other free agents. So that's what I mean. It's the last thing that happens that sets the free agent, the full free agent list, who's going to be available in the open market. If somebody kind of unexpectedly catches a non tender, somebody that you might have interest in, boom, all of a sudden they're, they're in the free agent pool. So that's the last like transactional thing that happens in November. Like Sean said, all the awards, you know, gold glove, MVP, stuff like that. Uh, a lot of stuff is supposed to happen in December, but it's not going to this year. There's 99.9% positive. There's going to be a lockout on December 1st. So all that stuff's going to get wiped out. So I'm very curious how that stuff's going to play out, how, you know, what they're going to do once things, start back up whenever that happens. And we don't know when that's going to happen, but yeah, at least there should be by November 20th, we'll have the full free agent list, which is going to give teams about 10 days to do all of their final business before the lockout strikes on, on December 1st. So it could be a very, very wild November, especially by baseball standards. 00:10:38 Speaker 1: And you've got the added aspect of that non-tender deadline. Some, you may see some trades where, you know, one team, they know they're not going to tender a guy. They're going to do it. An important distinction when it comes to tendering, what that means is that, so for instance, the Braves, and we're about to get into some of the names that will be affected by that exact date. This is them basically saying, hey, we're going to give you a contract. You still have to agree to a number, which sometimes leads to arbitration. So that's kind of how all that process works. But let's get more into that. Let's get more into the decisions that beyond what the Braves could do with their own internal free agents. What about the guys who potentially could go to arbitration or the Braves have decisions on when it comes to tendering them a contract? More on that in a moment after a word from the wonderful folks at Fastenal. 00:11:21 Speaker 3: Fastenal Industrial Supplies Innovative Solutions. Want to learn more? Visit Fastenal.com. 00:11:29 Speaker 4: Hey, Ed F. Key in the Foul Territory Network. We have so many shows, so many schedules, so many hosts. It is really hard to stay organized. That's why there's Housecall Pro. If you work in the HVAC, if you work in plumbing, if you work in construction, you work with your hands, they'll organize your schedule. 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Please support our show and let them know we sent you. 00:12:30 Speaker 1: So, Stephen, when we talk about the guys that the Braves could potentially, you know, look to add, you know, or excuse me, look to make decisions on when it comes to these contracts to tender, you know, it really comes down to, you know, a couple of names that stand out. There's no major names other than Dylan Lee in this, but I'll let you kind of go through it and then we'll discuss if there's really any interesting decisions, you know, beyond, you know, or if any of these other names stand out as being worth, you know, actual discussion. 00:13:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. So the, the arbitration projections came out, actually they came out like three weeks ago. The Braves are still in the playoffs when they happen. So MLB trade rumors, which is a tremendous site, has done for years these arbitration projections and they study it as well as anybody and they get their projections down as close as anybody. And one thing people might not know is that arbitration is based on historical comps. So like how much money you get is based on how much money somebody of a similar stat line and a similar age got, you know, five years ago. So and because

it's a kind of a built in system, it's very easy as long as you study it well enough to kind of project where where players are going to be. So that's how MLB trade rumors puts out these projections every year. They usually do it in October. Again, the Braves were in the postseason when this came out. So we kind of missed it. But now that the Braves are out, we can talk about it. But yeah, basically anybody between like three and six years of service time has their salary decided by arbitration. It's not free agency. But it's also not just the team deciding how much you're going to make, which is what happens when you're between zero and three years of service time. There's an actual process that helps you get modest raises. It's not like the free market. You're not going to get anything crazy unless you're like Juan Soto good. But it is your ability to get a modest raise from what you've been making in your first three years, which is usually league minimum. And the Braves, while they don't have a massive list of players, that are going to be in arbitration this year. They do have a couple of interesting players. And, of course, that's what we're going to talk about here. 00:14:52 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:14:53 Speaker 1: And so there is one other notable name. It is the way that MLB Trade Rumors has their stuff done. It was kind of crazy. But, yeah, so Dylan Lee and Bryce Elder both are, you know, names that are there to watch. But let's go through it real quickly. Of course, Dylan Lee, you know, he will be entering– this may be his– I don't I can't remember if it's his first or second year, but regardless, um, Dylan Lee is projected to make 4.2 million. Bryce Elder is projected to make 4 million. Then you've got James Korinchak, who's projected to make 1.1 million. Joey Wentz, who was out this last season with, um, uh, ACL surgery that he suffered in spring training, 900,000. Michael Grove, who I think the Braves acquired towards the end of the year, he's at 1 million. And then Luke Williams at 900,000. So, I think basically what you have here, Stephen, is you have two clear does, two clear no's, and then also two clear decisions that could be made. I think that obviously Elder and Lee are going to be extended or tendered a contract. Those are obviously very modest salaries for the value that both of them can provide. I think that you could possibly see the Braves, you know, not worry about Michael Grove or Luke Williams. But then that brings you to, you know, to, you know, potential rotation depth member as well as, you know, an arm that, you know, could play a role in the bullpen, Corinne Shaq and Wentz. What are your thoughts on those two? Don't necessarily think either one of them. I think that if either one of them take on a major role in 27, that may be more of a negative than a positive. But those are some pretty modest, you know, contracts, again, right around one million for both. You think Karinczak or Wentz makes sense to tender a contract for next year? 00:16:36 Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of these just come down to they're so small. We're going to talk about Dylan Lee and Elder here in a second because those are the two big names, obviously. But, yeah, like, especially Joey Wentz because, again, how much you get paid is based off the season you just had. Well, Joey Wentz was just out for the entire season because he tore his ACL, right? That was back in, like, February. 00:17:00 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:17:01 Speaker 3: He tore his ACL coming off the mound. So he's been out the whole, he's been out the whole year. So he's basically going to get what he would have gotten if this was his first year in arbitration, which is almost league minimum, which means it's not the salary that's going to side for the Braves. Like the, the number is not going to be the decision maker for them. It's going to be his roster spot. Is he worth a 40 man roster spot? And when you get into numbers that low where they're basically league minimum and which is, I mean, league minimum, I think is $ 800, 000. Joey Wentz's projection is $ 900, 000. So effectively a league minimum contract, the salary is not going to be the, what decides it. It's going to be, are you worth the 40 man roster spot? And the same thing with Karen check, honestly, it's going to be, you know, what else do the Braves do in the bullpen? Who else do they think on the 40 man roster is already going to be a bullpen possibility? You know, stuff we don't know is like with Karen check who got used at the major league level, probably less than what people thought he would, you know, is there a reason? What is the reason for that? Why, why, why did we not see him as much as maybe some thought we would and whatever that is, that might lead to them just non tendering him and let him go into free agency. That wouldn't surprise me at all with Wentz. I bet they tender him a contract and just because they need as much starting pitching depth as they can get. It wasn't an arm injury. It was a knee injury. For basically league minimum, I think you tender that contract and roll the dice that he can help you either on the Gwinnett shuttle or as an actual member of the rotation or maybe even in the bullpen. 00:18:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Maybe you sign Wentz and maybe he, if just one thing leads to another and he has to make double-digit starts for you next year, maybe he can do his best Martin Perez per performance and give the Braves some value. He was pretty decent in 25 when the Braves gave him some run. But of course, we talked about Bryce Elder and Dylan Lee. More on them in just a moment and some other news that came out earlier today. More on that in just a moment after a word from our partners. 00:19:14 Speaker 4: SeatGeek is the official ticket marketplace for Major League Baseball. And anytime you want to go to a game, You should go to SeatGeek. I used to call the director of team travel. I used to call the traveling secretary,

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would say they overused him in the first half. He pitched a lot in the first half. I don't know. I don't know what they believe internally, if they think he got used so much in the first half that that contributed to his second half. I do know he stopped missing bats in the second half, and that is a little bit of a concern. And again, if this was a $ 10 million number, then that's a much different conversation. But this is $ 4 million. I mean, this is like the Orlando Garcia contract from a couple years ago, where it's like, at that number, it's just almost, it's crazy not to not to sign up for that. 00:22:42 Speaker 4: Right. 00:22:42 Speaker 3: I mean, you know, and elder is probably a little bit different because, you know, elders are starter and it's, it's a lot clearer. It's a lot easier to see the value of a starter. I still think 4 million bucks for even like, maybe not a total high leverage lever, maybe more of a medium leverage. If you're really pessimistic on Dylan Lee is still a bargain. So I, I would be stunned. I would be legitimately stunned if they did not tender him a contract and be absolutely thrilled at keeping Dylan Lee around for 4 million bucks. 00:23:18 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:23:18 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:23:18 Speaker 1: I mean, it makes sense, you know, again, especially, you know, if they do see right. So the glaciers walk, you know, you want as many reliable arms as now there. And that's one thing, you know, argue against, I know he struggled in the second half of the playoffs, but Dylan Lee far more often than not has been reliable. So the other news of the day, of course, it deals with Jerickson profile. And, and, you know, it's really kind of our first update when it comes to baseball activity, because he couldn't do any during the regular season. Um, is the fact that Jerickson Profar will be playing winter ball. Now, I'm not going to try to pronounce the name of the team that he'll be playing for. It's the Sharks. I did look that up. They are called the Sharks. But it's also the team that Ronald Acuna Jr. typically plays with during winter ball. Now, that's just a whole other thing to get into about Ronald Acuna Jr. and winter ball. But you see the connections there. You see the fact that Jerickson Profar is going to do baseball activity. And he's going to play for a team that, you know, the Braves are familiar with. So it's going to be, you know, something I guess that you could follow. Steven, I have my take on it. I think that it's probably going to be similar to yours, but what are your initial thoughts when it comes to, you know, the, really the first kind of, you know, update we've had on next steps for Dierkson profile. 00:24:26 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:24:28 Speaker 3: And Brad and Scott talked about this a little bit on their show on Sunday or not Sunday on Thursday, last Thursday, but it is a fascinating situation because he has this one more year left on his deal. The Braves essentially saved all of his money from last year and they really didn't spend it. I mean, at no point did they have a, the type of acquisition that you would think, okay, that's them spending the jerks and pro farm money. 00:24:57 Speaker 4: Right. 00:24:58 Speaker 3: And there was a point last year where I thought, When it became clear that they weren't going to spend it, there was a point where I thought, I do wonder if they're going to take that $ 15 million savings and apply it to 2027 so that they can cut him and not have to worry about it. Because the thing I don't know with Profar is I don't know what the clubhouse reaction is going to be. I've talked about this before on this show. There is nobody that hates cheaters more than active players. It actually might be the thing that active players hate more than fans like as much as fans were pissed at Profar I guarantee you there were people in that clubhouse that were more like way more pissed because the players believe you're taking money out of somebody else's pocket who did it clean right that 42 million dollars that Jerickson Profar signed for well if he cheated to get to it and it sure as hell seems like he cheated to get to it well that that's money out of somebody's pocket who you know who didn't get that because they they played it clean and straight up. And so players, players are more passionate about this than even fans are. And like, if you told me right now that Chris sale went to Alex and Dopples and said, Hey, I don't want this guy in this clubhouse. I, I think Alex would, I don't know if that would be a hundred percent of the decision, but like if, if a couple of the clubhouse leaders came up to Alex and said, no, this guy's not coming back. I think they would oblige that in some way, shape or form, and which would almost certainly just be cutting him. So I don't know what's going to happen. I'll say this purely from a baseball perspective. If they are going to have him on the roster, he needs to play winter ball because he hasn't played any year. Like if they are actually going to put him on the roster, then him playing winter ball makes sense to me because the guy has just been sitting for over like, you know, six, seven months and, That's a really good way to not be able to play baseball anymore, at least on any sort of level. Now, how good is he off of PEDs? No one really knows. But if they're going to put him on the roster, and I'm not sure they are, then him playing winter ball makes sense to me. I mean, you've got to get him in there and let him see it. It's not major league level pitching, but at least it's something. 00:27:20 Speaker 1: When he came back from the 81-game suspension in 2025– It wasn't just like a star-level impact, but I think that he added positive aspects to the team. Alex Anthopoulos talked about it in his after-season comments earlier today. He referenced multiple times the fact that the Braves were top five in on-base percentage in baseball to end 25. Well, Profar was a big reason

for that. I don't think, though, that that means you should talk yourself into the idea that Profar makes sense for this team. His profile makes sense for this team. That's why he was signed. But this man has cheated twice. He has cheated twice. And he also removed himself from the equation in which he was specifically signed. to help one of the Braves' biggest needs. If Profar would have been at DH for most of the year instead of others, you likely would have seen from him alone a significant contribution to getting on base, to situational hitting, things like that. And the Braves have not been able to do that. So the Braves do need to target someone with a similar profile to Jerks and Profar like he had in 2000, obviously somebody who did it clean, like he had in 2024 before he was signed, and then also in the second half of 2025. But it does not need to be Jerickson profile. When he's eligible again, pay some of his salary down, maybe add an intriguing prospect, see if you could trade him away to save some money. Or if it comes to just cutting him, it does not make sense to me, especially with the fact that it's well-known around baseball that one of the Braves' biggest strengths is their clubhouse. I don't think it makes sense to bring jerks and profile back again, his profile, someone that can add value like he can, it would really help the Braves, but that ship sale on jerks and profile, I don't want him back on the tape. 00:29:19 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:29:19 Speaker 3: And I imagine there are a lot of fans that agree with you. I imagine there are players in the clubhouse that agree with you. Just the thing about this team is they, they, they move. I mean, they move heaven and earth not to have dead money on the books and you know, That's a lot of dead money in the books. And again, I do like the fact that they didn't spend the money they saved last year. I do wonder if they can earmark it for 2027. I don't know. I don't know how they run their books. I don't know if they're in a position where they can do that. But I think if the $ 15 million is going to be the entire decision. I think you just said... I think Alex would kick him off the roster immediately if it wasn't that $ 15 million. But money, you know, I mean, we saw it with Ozuna for a couple of years before he turned it around. Owing somebody a lot of money is a big factor in decisions that get made. It just is. It's just the reality. And especially when you're not the Dodgers and teams that operate on a budget, like you owe a guy a lot of money. that's a lot of the decision, unfortunately. So we'll see what happens. I, I would be, I mean, I would be a hundred percent fine if they cut them tomorrow. Uh, I just don't see it happening and we'll see, we'll see how they do it. 00:30:36 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:30:36 Speaker 5: Agree. 00:30:36 Speaker 1: You know, definitely be an intro, another interesting thing to watch. Um, you know, this, this off season, but of course that's the thing about it. The off season is going to be condensed and it's going to be chaotic at times. Um, and that's, that's something to certainly watch out for. That's why it's important to know what dates to really follow when it comes to November. For Stephen Tolbert, you can find him at B underscore Outliers on Twitter slash X. My name is Sean Coleman. You can find me at StatsSAC. Until next time, go Braves. We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory Podcast.