Reese Kaplan -- The Weird 2026/2027 Baseball Calendar

It’s become something of a regular review for me about the upcoming baseball calendar.  In years past it focused primarily on pending free agent acquisitions and roster removals to create space to fill with new faces.  This year it’s a bit different because of the elephant in the room.

The first big date occurs five days after the conclusion of the World Series.  It is then that players who are eligible can choose to file for free agency.

In the case of the Mets, the big question, of course, is what Bo Bichette will do with his opt-out clause giving him the ability to gamble on another team paying him either more money annually or for a greater number of years.  Conventional wisdom is that Bichette will stay after his middling year as a Met since no one is likely to want to commit $42 million for a guy with 78 RBIs this past year. 

After that there are no seemingly critical pieces left for the Mets to manage after the trade deadline sell off.  The upcoming Met organizational players eligible to depart include Vidal Brujan (minor league level), Bryce Conley (same deal), Chris Devenski (same deal), Dan Hammer (same deal), Kevin Herget, MJ Melendez (same deal with minor league free agency), Matt Seelinger (same deal), Zack Short and Guillo Zuniga (minor league level).  If all of them left no one would be shedding tears, though Devenski was a returning Met this past season.

The next big date on the baseball calendar is the annual GM Meeting taking place this year in Las Vegas between November 9th and 12th.  Given the upcoming December 1st lockout possibility it could mean that baseball executives could move much more aggressively to add players than they would have done without that pachyderm threatening to trample the 2027 season.  Normally the Winter Meetings are where roster changes usually start taking place but this uncertain baseball reality could indeed change things. 

Unrelated to the Mets this year is the mid November deadline for players either to accept or reject QOs before moving forward in free agency.  With teams having five days after the World Series to extend an offer, the player is then on the clock being given up to 10 days to decide whether or not to return to their 2026 team.  The Mets have no major league free agents even remotely near a QO decision.

In New York City between November 17th and 19th the Owner’s Meeting takes place during which the details of the likely lockout over the expiring CBA that will curtail the normal 162 game schedule for the upcoming 2027 season.

The next major decision point is the November 20th non-tender deadline for players currently under contract with less than six years of major league service time. For the Mets, this list could potentially include Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Reed Garrett, Tylor Megill, Christopher Morel, Dedniel Nunez, Cristian Pache, Cionel Perez, Austin Warren and Mark Vientos. 

The two players returning from injury — Garrett and Megill — require a little bit of analysis to decide how soon they could return and how effective they would be while in post surgery recovery.  Others who have value include Alvarez and Baty.  The ones who are less certain to return include Morel, Pache, Perez, Warren and Vientos. 

Normally the Winter Meetings are where the hot stove enthusiasts get excited to see who will or won’t be a part of the upcoming season’s roster.  If the lockout indeed takes place then the Winter Meetings this year are likely not to happen which not only will eliminate this annual roster feeding frenzy but also will postpone the MLB draft lottery and te Rule 5 draft.

Normally in February the teams and unsigned players on the roster who are eligible exchange arbitration figures.  A mediator is used to ascertain the allegedly fair contract amount for each qualified player in arbitration.