MLB Dates & Deadlines


Apr
1

MLB Opening Day

The 2021 MLB regular season begins on April 1. As of right now, the earliest scheduled game is the Blue Jays @ Yankees with a first pitch set for 1:05 P.M.

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Jan
15

Arbitration Salary Submission Deadline

MLB teams and their arbitration-eligible players must submit their desired contracts by this date if an alternative agreement has not been reached. These submitted salary figures will be used in arbitration to determine the player’s salary for the upcoming season.

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Dec
10

MLB Rule 5 Draft

The Rule 5 Draft occurs each year, and the player pool is limited to certain minor leaguers that were not added to their respective organization’s 40-man roster before its deadline (see below). The Draft contains two phases: Major League and Triple-A.

For the Major League Phase, once a player is drafted, he must be added to the new organization’s 26-man active roster immediately and the drafting team must send $100,000 to the player’s original team. If the new team wishes to remove the player from the active roster in the duration of the subsequent season, it must place the player on waivers. If the player remains unclaimed, the team must offer the player back to his original team for $50,000. If the original team declines the offer, then the team that drafted the player in the Rule 5 Draft may assign him to the minors.

For the Triple-A Phase, the selected player is not subject to roster limitations in the new organization. Selections in this phase only cost selecting teams $24,500 to the player’s old team.

The draft order is determined by the reverse order of the previous season’s standings and team can only make as many selections as unfilled spots exist on their 40-man roster (for the Major League Phase) or 38-man AAA roster (for the Triple-A Phase). Teams can opt out of making a selection.

Deadlines for players to be added to the 40-man roster:

1) Players who originally signed into an MLB organization at 19 years old or older must be added to their organization’s 40-man roster within four seasons.

2) Players who originally signed into an MLB organization at 18 years old or younger must be added to their organization’s 40-man roster within five seasons.

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Dec
6
to Dec 10

MLB Winter Meetings

Typically, the Winter Meetings are held in-person for a week. Much of the offseason framework is assembled at these meetings, as baseball front offices get together with each other and player agents to acquire players via free agency and trade. This was highlighted last year by the signings of Stephen Strasburg and Gerrit Cole. This year, the Winter Meetings will be conducted remotely due to the pandemic.

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Dec
2

Non-Tender Deadline

For players that are pre-arbitration or arbitration eligible (typically the first six seasons of a player’s career), organizations need to tender a contract by this date. If a player is non-tendered, they become an unrestricted free agent and are no longer on the payroll for the organization that served the non-tender.

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