With the World Series coming to an end last night, the 2024/2025 offseason officially begins today. Here is a quick primer of all of the offseason topics surrounding the Pittsburgh Pirates.
40-Man Roster Decisions
Teams must reinstate players from the 60-day disabled list no later than five days after the end of the World Series, getting their rosters down to 40-men. The deadline this year is on Monday. The Pittsburgh Pirates have seven players on the 60-day injured list and two open spots.
Here are the players who are on the IL: Marco Gonzales, Ben Heller, Daulton Jefferies, Dauri Moreta, Johan Oviedo, Hunter Stratton, Endy Rodriguez
The final four players on that list should get roster spots over the offseason. The Pirates would need to create two spots on the 40-man roster to add Moreta, Oviedo, Stratton, and Rodriguez in the next five days.
Other Decisions:
- Teams must also make decisions on option years no later than 11:59 PM EST on Saturday night. The Pirates have decisions to make on Marco Gonzales, who has a $15 million option with no buyout. He’s a guarantee to be bought out, which will solve the issue of his 60-day IL status.
- November 19th marks the deadline for teams to set their 40-man rosters for the 2024 Rule 5 draft. Teams can make changes to the 40-man roster after November 19th, although they can’t add any new internal players to the roster before the Rule 5 draft, which takes place on December 11th.
- In the minors, the Domestic Reserve List limits teams to 165 players in the system, outside of Latin America. This list grows to 175 during the offseason.
Free Agency
October 31st at 12:01 AM EST marked the beginning of a five-day period in which teams retain exclusive negotiating rights with their players who qualify for free agency. The Pirates have five players who qualify for free agency: Andrew McCutchen, Aroldis Chapman, Ryan Borucki, Yasmani Grandal, and Jalen Beeks.
The big topic during this period will be the qualifying offers for the pending free agents. Teams have five days to decide if they will make a qualifying offer to departing free agents. This year the offer is $21.05 M for one year. If the player accepts that offer, the team gets him for the 2025 season on that deal. If the player declines and signs with another team, the former team gets a draft pick in the 2025 draft.
The Pirates don’t have anyone who would receive a qualifying offer.
Arbitration Eligible Players
Teams have until November 22nd to tender offers to their arbitration eligible players for the 2025 season. The Pirates have eight players who are eligible for salary arbitration this year. Here are the players, and their projected arbitration prices, according to MLBTR:
- Dennis Santana (4.126): $1.8MM
- David Bednar (4.076): $6.6MM
- Ben Heller (3.165): $1MM
- Connor Joe (3.136): $3.2MM
- Johan Oviedo (3.079): $1.5MM
- Bryan De La Cruz (3.056): $4MM
- Joey Bart (3.020): $1.8MM
- Colin Holderman (2.144): $1.4MM
- Bailey Falter (2.138): $2.8MM
Once offers are tendered, the two sides (the team and the player) will work to reach an agreement. If no agreement can be reached, the two sides file for arbitration.
On January 10th, the two sides exchange salary figures, and have their salary arbitration hearing during the first three weeks of February. The sides can reach a deal outside of the arbitration process at any time before the actual hearing, even immediately before the scheduled hearing.
If the negotiations do reach the hearing, both sides will argue their case for the salary they submitted, and the three person arbitration panel will determine which salary is more appropriate for the player. All decisions made by the panel are final, although the club and the player are free to re-negotiate the deal.
Meetings
The two notable meetings that take place in the offseason are the GM meetings, and the more popular Winter Meetings. The first meetings provides an opportunity for the General Managers to meet face to face, and possibly start discussions on potential trades.
The GM meetings are November 4-7. The Winter Meetings take place on December 8-11. The Winter Meetings usually mark the time when free agency starts to heat up.
Draft and International Signings
The MLB Draft Lottery will take place on December 10th. The Pirates have a 5.31% chance of winning the lottery, which could give them a pick in the top six spots of the 2025 draft. They finished the 2024 season with the eighth-worst record in the league, but have the sixth best odds. That’s due to the Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics being ineligible for the lottery, despite worse records than the Pirates.
Teams can only receive a lottery pick two years in a row if they pay into revenue sharing, or three years in a row if they receive revenue sharing. The Pirates receive revenue sharing, and didn’t win a lottery pick last year. This means they could win a lottery pick this offseason and for the next two years before becoming ineligible. This offseason will give them a good chance to move up into the top six of the draft.
The international signing period ends on December 15th, giving teams a few weeks to spend their remaining amateur budgets for the 2024 international signing period. January 15th begins the 2025 international signing period. The Pirates will have $6,908,600 to spend. They just hired a new international scouting director, but the MLB international system is full of corruption and under the table deals, which means this year’s Pirates class won’t be impacted by the change at the top.
