There is one event every offseason that serves as the unofficial launchpad for the season to come: the MLB winter meetings. While the hot stove has been on for more than a month now, the stewpot full of MLB players and teams isn’t close to boiling yet. But the heat gets turned way up at the Winter Meetings, and typically, that’s when things start to happen.
The winter meetings generally take place annually in early December, but the location changes from year to year. This year, the event is being held Dec. 3-6 in Nashville, Tennessee.
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With the winter meetings — and possibly some big signings — right around the corner, here’s everything you need to know about the biggest event in baseball until pitchers and catchers report in February.
What are the winter meetings?
The winter meetings are an industry gathering at which baseball people (team executives, scouts, agents, league officials, media, etc.) come together in one city (and one hotel) for three days. There are workshops, strategy sessions, a job fair (with plenty of job interviews), a trade show and tons of networking. Also, over the course of the event, teams meet with the representatives of players they’re interested in signing.
Who will be at the winter meetings?
The top executives for all 30 MLB teams will definitely be there. Every team organizes its front office differently, so that could mean general managers, presidents and/or vice presidents of baseball operations and maybe even some pro scouting managers and player personnel directors. But no matter who gets sent to Nashville, all 30 teams will be represented. Team owners sometimes hop on their jets and make appearances as well.
Player agents will attend, sometimes with players themselves, typically those who are currently free agents. Agents for Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell, two of the biggest names on the free-agent market, will likely be in Nashville, along with others. Agents for recently posted Japanese players such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga are also likely to be there, as their clients have a limited window (45 days from posting) to sign with an MLB team.
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The media will also be there. Writers, TV personalities, content creators and more will be swapping stories and breaking news in the lobbies, hallways and meeting rooms of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Hotel. If social media posts from previous winter meetings are any indication, they will also be sampling some of Nashville’s best food and libations.
What happens at the winter meetings?
The short answer? Just about everything baseball-related.
The longer answer? Free agents are signed, trades are made, and the groundwork is laid for future trades and signings. Recent and soon-to-be college graduates, as well as interns and other lower-level baseball staffers, meet with teams and outside baseball companies to find job opportunities. People who communicate virtually for the vast majority of the year get to see one another in person. Players get to meet their possible future bosses and sometimes their future teammates.
While texting and email have taken over as the primary modes of communication for executives, agents and reporters, nothing can replace the chemistry of putting several hundred baseball decision-makers and journalists in one hotel for three days. It’s like a petri dish, with all the tiny organisms reacting to one another in close proximity and nothing happening in isolation.
That said, there have also been years when no big news comes out of the winter meetings. Hopefully 2023 won’t be one of those years.
Which free agents could be signed at the winter meetings?
With so many high-level free agents still on the board, this could be an action-packed winter meetings.
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The name on everyone’s lips is still Shohei Ohtani. While the two-way player won’t pitch in 2024 due to elbow surgery, he’s a prolific hitter who would significantly improve any MLB lineup the moment he arrives. It’s not known when he might sign with a team, but there’s no reason it couldn’t happen next week.
Starting pitcher Blake Snell, the 2023 NL Cy Young Award winner, is still on the market. And with Aaron Nola and Sonny Gray already signed (Nola returned to the Philadelphia Phillies on a seven-year contract, Gray signed a three-year deal with the St. Louis Cardinals), he’s by far the best free-agent starter available.
Center fielder and first baseman Cody Bellinger, starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery and third baseman Matt Chapman are also unsigned free agents who could land with new teams during the meetings. Japanese pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga and Korean center fielder Jung-hoo Lee have been posted and are free to sign with MLB teams.
What other topics might be discussed at the winter meetings?
The winter meetings are distinct from the MLB owners meetings, at which MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB owners meet to discuss high-level business, and the meetings of the competition committee, which is when rule changes are proposed and approved. The major changes that come from these meetings will be the results of trades and signings.
But a lot has happened in MLB over the past year, and more changes are in store for 2024. If Manfred makes an appearance at these meetings, he will almost certainly hold a news conference. These are a few of the topics he might discuss.
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