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MLB draft lottery (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Once the MLB postseason ends, the offseason begins in full force, with free agency opening almost immediately and tender deadlines, reserve lists and other key offseason dates arriving soon thereafter.
Below, you’ll find a rundown of key MLB offseason dates set to occur before the end of 2025. All dates are subject to change.
Nov. 1:The scheduled date for Game 7 of the World Series, if necessary.
Day After The World Series Ends:Eligible XX(B) players—players with six or more years of major league service time who are eligible for free agency—become free agents.
Five Days After World Series Ends:Deadline for MLB teams to tender qualifying offers to XX(B) players. Free agency also begins, with players able to negotiate and sign with any club.
Nov. 10-13:General managers meetings in Las Vegas.
Nov. 18-20: Owners meetings in New York City.
Nov. 18: Deadline for XX(B) players to accept qualifying offers and the reserve list deadline for teams to set rosters for the upcoming Rule 5 draft. Both deadlines are set for 4 p.m. ET.
Nov. 21:Tender deadline.
Dec. 8-11:Winter meetings in Orlando.
Dec. 9:MLB Draft lottery (held at 4 p.m. ET, announced on MLB Network at 5:30 p.m. ET). You can find 2026 draft lottery odds here.
Dec. 10: MLB Rule 5 draft (2-4 p.m. ET)
Oct 12, 2025, 08:00 AM ET
With the Chicago Cubs’ season having come to an end, the questions about Kyle Tucker’s future can start.
One of the biggest prizes on the market entering free agency, the outfielder said after Saturday’s loss in Game 5 of the NL Division Series to the Milwaukee Brewers that he isn’t sure what’s next.
“We’ll see what happens,” said Tucker, who agreed to a $16.5 million deal to avoid arbitration this season. “I don’t know what the future is going to hold. If not, it was an honor playing with all these guys and I wish everyone the best of luck, whether it’s playing next year or not with them. It’s a really fun group to be a part of.”
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The addition of Tucker, who was acquired via trade from the Houston Astros prior to this season, buoyed the Cubs’ hopes of a deep postseason run. And when Tucker was healthy and rolling early in the season, he was a viable MVP candidate and a catalyst in a dynamic, varied offense.
However, Tucker, who turns 29 in January, suffered a fractured right hand in June and a calf strain in September as the Brewers won the NL Central by five games over the Cubs, who landed the top wild-card spot at 92-70.
Still, he slashed .266/.377/.464 with 22 home runs, 73 RBIs and 25 steals in 136 games while earning an All-Star nod for the Cubs this season. He returned in time for the playoffs and was 7-for-27 with a home run and one RBI.
“He meant a lot,” Cubs first baseman Michael Busch told reporters. “The consistency of at-bat. Getting on base and driving [in runs]. He’s just as complete of a hitter as you can get. I think putting him in any lineup, he’s going to be right up at the top. I think he’s one of the best hitters in the game. He can change that lineup just with putting him in there.”
But Tucker and the Cubs never came to an agreement on a long-term deal as the season unfolded.
“I don’t really know right now,” Tucker said when asked if the Cubs have an advantage in signing him as a free agent. “I was more worried about the game tonight and everything. I’ll kind of get through this today and worry about that a little later.
“I think this team is really, really talented. A great group of guys. And I can definitely see this team having a lot of success in the future.”
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers and Bradford Doolittle contributed to this report.
Jorge CastilloOct 10, 2025, 10:53 AM ET
- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
As expected, New York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger plans to opt out of his contract and become a free agent next month, a source told ESPN.
Bellinger, 30, has a $25 million player option for next season. After a rebound season in his first year in pinstripes, he presumably will receive widespread interest in free agency — it should yield a lucrative multi-year contract.
The Yankees acquired Bellinger from the Chicago Cubs last December. For the Cubs, he was a salary dump days after they acquired Kyle Tucker.
For the Yankees, he was part of the swift pivot from Juan Soto. In the end, the 2019 NL MVP ended up being their second-most valuable player.
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Hitting behind Aaron Judge most of the season, Bellinger batted .272 with 29 home runs and an .813 OPS in 152 games in 2025. He was especially productive against left-handed pitching despite hitting left-handed, leading all left-handed hitters in on-base percentage (.415) and slugging (.601) against lefties.
He was also one of the sport’s top defenders: Bellinger accumulated seven Outs Above Average and eight Defensive Runs Saved between the three outfield positions and first base. He added 13 steals in 15 attempts. His 4.9 fWAR was tied with Kyle Schwarber for 18th in the majors and second on the Yankees behind Judge.
Bellinger signed a three-year, $80 million — with opt-outs after the first and second years — with the Cubs before the 2024 season. He had declined the Cubs’ qualifying offer earlier in the offseason.
Other Yankees expected to reach free agency include outfielder Trent Grisham, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, and relievers Devin Williams and Luke Weaver.
Outfielder Cody Bellinger intends to decline his $25 million player option for the 2026 season, making him a free agent.
ESPN’s Jorge Castillo reported Bellinger intends to opt out of his deal with the New York Yankees and test the open market.
The Yankees acquired Bellinger from the Chicago Cubs last December for right-handed pitcher Cody Poteet. He enjoyed a productive season in New York, hitting .272/.334/.480 with 29 home runs and 98 RBI while scoring 89 runs. Bellinger was excellent in the field as well with 11 total runs saved, per Fielding Bible.
Bellinger arrived in the majors in 2017 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he provided an immediate positive impact, hitting 39 home runs and posting a .933 OPS while winning NL Rookie of the Year honors, making the All-Star Game and even finishing ninth in the NL MVP race. He helped L.A. win the NL pennant as well.
Bellinger’s best season was 2019, when he won NL MVP honors after hitting .305 (1.035 OPS) with 47 home runs and 115 RBI.
Bellinger then endured a three-year slump, in part because of numerous injuries suffered during the 2021 season, when he hit just .165 over 95 games. From 2020-2022, Bellinger hit just .203 (.648 OPS).
After the 2022 season, Bellinger left the Dodgers for the Cubs in free agency on a one-year, $17.5 million deal. He enjoyed a great bounce-back campaign in 2023, hitting .307 (.881 OPS) with 26 home runs and 97 RBI in 130 games. Bellinger finished 10th in the NL MVP race and earned his second career Silver Slugger award.
He re-signed with Chicago on a three-year, $80 million deal after the season. Following the 2024 campaign, the Cubs went in a different direction, adding outfielder Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros, leaving Chicago with extra players at the position. And so Bellinger went to the Bronx, a place his father, Clay Bellinger, called home from 1999-2001 as a utility man for the Yanks.
Bellinger enjoyed a great 2025 season, but this is a situation where the 30-year-old should cash in on a fantastic year and look for a lucrative, long-term deal.
In the photo above, the lie is so preposterous, it looks like a prank. It isn’t.
It actually occurred in a recent tournament in which a friend of the Etiquetteist was competing.
Talk about bad luck. Stripe a drive down the fairway, and your ball not in a divot hole but on the divot itself.
Not fair, right? But life’s not always fair. And neither is golf.
Sometimes, you get what you get and you’re not entitled to get upset. At least, you’re not entitled to do anything about it. The guidelines of the game make this clear. Under Rule 9.1a, a “ball at rest on the course must be played as it lies,” except when the Rules allow for relief.
In the case of a dislodged tuft of turf, relief is not permitted.
The same is true if your ball settles in a divot. Bad lie? Too bad. Some people think that rule should change. Among them: Bernhard Langer. In a 2022 interview with GOLF.com, the Ageless One argued that “we should be dropping out of divots” because “divots are made by us.”
The former longtime broadcaster Peter Kostis takes a similar stance.
“If a sand-filled divot isn’t ground under repair,” he once said, “then I don’t know what those words mean.”
The counter-argument holds that changing the rule to allow for relief from divots would lead the game down a slippery slope. What, exactly, qualifies as a divot? On this matter, the thinking goes, certain golfers would be bound disagree. In just a matter of time, players would be seeking relief for the slightest imperfections. And from there, anarchy!
The Etiquetteist agrees. He believes the rule should remain as is. But that doesn’t mean it should apply in every round we play.
To borrow from Bobby Jones, there is tournament golf and regular golf, and they are not at all the same. Nor should they be treated identically. In regular golf, with our friends, we should do our best to play by the rules. But when plainly ridiculous scenarios arise — like, for instance, the lie in the photo above — and there’s no need to protect the field; reason should prevail.
Might there be disagreements on what counts as ridiculous? Sure, there might. But in most cases, golfers playing in a casual match are capable of coming to a consensus. And when they can’t, they bring to the argument to the bar after the round, which is entertaining in itself.
If you’re dead-set on avoiding those types of disputes, your best bet is to establish the conditions of your match before you start. Make it explicit on the first tee that no matter what happens, no matter how absurdly bad a lie you draw, you are going to play it as it lies.
That, too, has potential benefits, as you never know what might happen next. You might wind up with a memorable story.
That’s what happened to the guy the Etiquetteist mentioned up top. Abiding by the rules, he played his approach from the loose toupee of turf and knocked it on the green from 185 yards out.
Relief pitcher Devin Williams expressed interest in potentially re-signing with the New York Yankees following the team’s playoff elimination at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 4 of the American League Division Series on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after the Yanks’ season-ending, 5-2 defeat, Williams said he is “definitely open” to signing a deal that would keep him in New York:
Williams added that he has enjoyed his time with the Yankees despite the challenges he faced during the 2025 season, saying, “At first, it was a challenge, but I’ve grown to love being here. I love the city. … I’ve really enjoyed my experience here.”
Blue Jays vs. Yankees (10/08/2025)
New York acquired Williams in an offseason trade that sent infielder Caleb Durbin and pitcher Nestor Cortes to the Milwaukee Brewers.
At the time, it felt like a small price to pay for a pitcher who had been among the most dominant closers in baseball the previous few seasons.
Over his six MLB seasons in Milwaukee before his arrival in New York, Williams posted a 27-10 record with 68 saves, a 1.83 ERA, a 1.02 WHIP and 375 strikeouts over 235.2 innings.
It seemed like a slam dunk pickup for the Yanks, adding a two-time All-Star, two-time Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Year and the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year to the bullpen.
However, Williams struggled out of the gate in New York and never fully recovered. He struggled through what was the worst statistical season of his career by far, going 4-6 with 18 saves, a 4.79 ERA, a 1.13 WHIP and 90 strikeouts over 62 innings.
Williams began the season as the Yankees’ closer, but he allowed runs in two of his first four outings and gave up three earned runs in three separate appearances in April alone.
That led to Williams being demoted from the closer role, and although he took it back momentarily, the job ended up going to David Bednar after the Yankees acquired him from the Pittsburgh Pirates at the trade deadline.
The totality of the season was not great for Williams, but he did not surrender a run in any of his final nine regular-season appearances, and from Aug. 10 to Sept. 28, he had a 2.50 ERA in 18 innings.
Williams was also effective in four playoff outings, allowing three hits, two walks and no earned runs, while striking out four.
It is fair to wonder if Williams did enough to interest the Yankees in retaining him, although that may largely depend on his asking price.
Williams, Luke Weaver, Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn are all set to hit free agency, while the Yankees have club options on Tim Hill and Jonathan Loaisiga.
Bednar, Camilo Doval, Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. are the top relievers still under contract for next season, potentially opening the door for the Yanks to have a much-needed overhaul of their bullpen.
Whether that includes Williams remains to be seen, but given how he ended the 2025 season, he could be a prime bounce-back candidate in 2026.
As a new season dawns, Nazem Kadri remains the topic of trade speculation. The 35-year-old Calgary Flames center has frequently surfaced in the rumor mill since the summer of 2024, and recently earned a spot on our August NHL Trade Block Big Board.
Kadri has repeatedly denied any intention of asking the retooling Flames for a trade. He’s signed through 2028-29 with an average annual value of $7 million. He also has a full no-movement clause for this season, which becomes a 13-team no-trade list on July 1 for the remainder of his contract.
Nevertheless, speculation persists that Kadri could become a trade candidate. During an Oct. 3 interview with the Flames Nation Barn Burner podcast, TSN’s Darren Dreger said it felt like a long shot that Kadri could be traded this season, but didn’t rule out the possibility of a move at the March trade deadline.
Dreger believes several teams could benefit from Kadri’s aggressive two-way skills, such as the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, and his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. If Kadri became available, Dreger believes the Flames would seek a high asking price.
Dreger suggested Kadri could become available at the March trade deadline if the Flames were out of playoff contention. Otherwise, he doesn’t see him moving. If the Flames were to peddle him, they might be better off waiting until July 1, when his full no-movement clause ends.
The Canadiens have a very exciting situation about to unfold with their horde of young talent.
From Cole Caufield to Lane Hutson to Ivan Demidov to Juraj Slafkovský, it feels inevitable that the Habs will be a menace for years to come. Patrik Laine was a big part of their breakout last season as a weapon on the power play, however, and his legacy as an offensive spark plug could make him a hotly pursued player next summer.
Laine’s elite shot makes him a threat to score any time he’s on the ice, and many contending teams love to have specialists like that in the lineup to make teams pay, especially for taking penalties.
Are there questions about his commitment to defensive play? Yes, 100 percent there are absolutely.
However, Laine is 27 years old, which, when it comes to unrestricted free agency, would make him one of the younger players available to sign. Sure, names like Evgeni Malkin, Mats Zuccarello, Claude Giroux, and Alex Ovechkin make our heads spin at the possibility of them signing somewhere else for a year or two for juicy money, but the likelihood of those guys changing addresses seems really, really low.
Laine would certainly come with a “buyer beware” advisory, but former 30-to-40-goal scorers offer the tantalization of maybe being able to do it again.
The Baltimore Orioles missed the playoffs in 2025, a feat that can be attributed to an injury list a mile long and the same starting pitching woes that have plagued them for years.
Dean Kremer was the ironman of the Orioles’ rotation, pitching 171.2 innings and accumulating a 4.19 ERA. Tomoyuki Sugano was so-so in his first season with a 4.64 ERA, Zach Eflin was injured more than not, and Cade Povich did Cade Povich things by allowing 65 earned runs.
Trevor Rodgers proved to be an ace in his 18 appearances, throwing 109.2 innings for an ERA of 1.81, but also faced injuries.
The team may have its star in Rodgers but it still badly needs another starter to go along with Kremer and Sugano, even more so considering Eflin is a free agent this offseason.
Nightengale reported that the Orioles “will be the most aggressive team looking for pitching this winter.”
The team has a young nucleus in the form of Sam Basallo, Gunner Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holiday, Coby Mayo, Colton Cowser, Jordan Westburg, and Dylan Beavers. Adding a piece or two to the rotation, or improving the bullpen, would go a long way in re-establishing the O’s as a legitimate title contender.
Dylan Cease, Framber Valdez, and Zac Gallen headline the free agent market this offseason and while any of them would be welcome additions in Baltimore and the type of player that would inspire excitement within the fan base, Mike Elias and the Orioles’ front office tend to like to look toward the second or third tiers to find their answers.
Chris Bassitt of Toronto, Tyler Mahle or Merrill Kelly of Texas, or Nestor Cortes of Milwaukee would fit their tendencies, as we saw last offseason with the signing of Charlie Morton.
Prediction: Orioles land a new starter and two bullpen pieces
The start of the NHL’s annual unrestricted free-agent market is still months away (July 1), but hockey fans are already looking ahead at the quality talent that might be available by then.
Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid and Minnesota Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov are two of the noteworthy superstars entering the final season of their current contracts. McDavid is playing coy over when he might re-sign, while Kaprizov recently rejected an eight-year, $128 million extension from the Wild.
The possibility of those two players being available could make next summer’s free-agent market the most star-studded in NHL history. That’s why we’re getting the jump on things with our way-too-early ranking of the top 2026 UFA players.
Bear in mind that most of the players (including McDavid and Kaprizov) on this ranking could end up re-signing with their current teams. Nevertheless, it’s worthwhile to get an early start on things by listing the cream of the crop.
We’ve excluded future Hall of Famers, such as Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin, Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin, and Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane. While they are well-known stars, these aging veterans are no longer in their playing prime and could retire at the end of the season.