Major League Baseball has come down to the last series of the 2025 season, the World Series. Upon the completion of the best-0f-seven series beginning Friday, all of MLB will begin their offseason.
Although the Padres are in the midst of a managerial search that will need to be completed before the serious work of the offseason can begin, there are some deadlines to come that don’t require a manager to be part of the decisions. President of Baseball Operations, A.J. Preller has an entire scouting and player development team that can give input regarding player decisions. Padres CEO Erik Greupner and Chairman John Seidler are two of the other key figures that will be active in making the offseason decisions.
There will be multiple players leaving the organization and many that will need to be added before we get to Spring Training in 2026. Although the manager position is among the biggest of those decisions, many of them help to decide the fate of the 2026 team.
Following is a list of the offseason deadlines that will be coming soon. Explanations and some of my own thoughts are included.
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Free agency for current players: Any players the team has developed or acquired as minor league players who now have six or more years of service time will be free agents the day after the World Series ends.
This is also true for the players whose contracts are expiring, but there is a five-day window under which the team that holds the contract has an exclusive window to negotiate with the player. During that five-day window the player and team can agree on a new contract or the team can offer a “Qualifying Offer” to the player.
If a contract is not agreed upon, and the player refuses the qualifying offer, that player becomes a free agent at 5 p.m. ET on the fifth day. They are then free to sign with any team and the team that signs them forfeits a draft pick in the next draft. The team that lost the player receives a compensatory draft pick in the next draft. The qualifying offer is a one-year contract that is valued at the average salary of the top 125 salaries in the league.
The qualifying offer value for 2026 is $22.025 million.
The Padres have multiple players that could have qualifying offers extended to them. The most likely are Dylan Cease, Michael King and Robert Suarez. It is not likely that Luis Arraez would receive an offer as he is not likely to receive a contract of that value from any team. The organization must decide if they believe the player in question is worth that salary.
Obviously, Cease and King will sign for at least that much in the free market and it is possible that the National League saves leader (Suarez) could also receive a contract that lucrative. There is no limit to the amount of qualifying offers a team can give, but a player can only receive one during their career.
All players with options must also make their decisions in this window. The team option as well as the player option applies to this time period. Padres who are under options include Elias Diaz, King and Suarez. It is assumed that both King and Suarez will exercise their opt outs in order to sign bigger contracts. Diaz and the organization have a mutual option, which requires both of them to opt in.
Kyle Hart has a club option and Tyler Wade has a club option. If Hart is released, it will open up a roster spot. He had limited success as a starter and inconsistent success as a reliever so it will be interesting to see what the organization decides.
-On Nov. 10-13 the
General Manager meetings will take place in Las Vegas. Although it is widely expected that Padres General Manager A.J. Preller will be extended, that should all be done before these meetings. The Padres need to settle this as Preller has to lay the groundwork for future trades and free agent signings during this time. Organizational stability is crucial for a contending team and is not likely the Padres want to enter the important parts of the offseason with questions about leadership lingering.
-On Nov. 18-20 are the
Owner’s meetings. These meetings address the big issues facing the entire league and will take place in New York.
-Nov. 18 is the deadline for the qualifying offers as well as setting team rosters before the Rule V draft that takes place during the winter meetings.
-Nov. 21 is the
non-tender deadline that requires teams to notify any player that is playing under the salary arbitration system, and on the 40-man roster, that they are not being tendered a contract for the next season. This usually happens when the organization feels the arbitration salary that is expected is not what they want to pay for that player. The player then becomes a free agent.
-The
MLB Winter Meetings take place Dec. 8-11 in Orlando. The current CBA expires Dec. 2, 2026. This is the last winter meeting before the negotiations have to begin for a new contract between MLB and its players. It should be expected to contain a lot of public posturing and floating of ideas regarding the upcoming negotiations. There are also a lot of deals done during these meetings with the start of Spring Training in February.
The MLB Draft lottery takes place as well as the Rule V draft (Dec. 10). The Rule V draft allows clubs that do not have a full 40-man roster to select certain non-40-man players from other organizations. Essentially, it is an avenue for teams to identify and give a Major League opportunity to players that they feel have been held back elsewhere.
Players signed at age 18 or younger must be added to their club’s 40-man roster within five seasons or else become eligible for the Rule V Draft. Players signed at 19 or older are eligible after four seasons. The Padres have many minor league players that fall under this year’s draft. The team must add anyone they want to keep to the 40-man roster or risk losing them to another team.
Starters Jagger Haynes, Miguel Mendez, Victor Lizarraga and Luis Guttierez as well as relievers Garrett Hawkins and Francis Pena are all eligible. Position players Romeo Sanabria and Braedon Karpathios are other prospects that have to be protected or risk being claimed.
A new season begins
The 2025 international signing period ends on Dec. 15 and the Padres still have about $2 million left to spend between now and the deadline.
January begins salary arbitration with players under contract and in their arbitration years, and the new international signing period open on Jan. 15, 2026.
The whole cycle begins again on Feb. 15, 2026. That is the voluntary reporting date for the new season. All players should be in camp by Feb. 20 and the season begins on March 25.
There will be reporting on all the events of the offseason and we will bring all the news leading up to the new season!
