Now that the WS is over, the official off-season begins. Since a number of key dates related to player movement are based on the end of the world series, now we can officially list the key upcoming dates.
This document is also available in the links section to the right-hand side of the blog (see the 2013-14 MLB Off Season Calendar link). I’ve uploaded it to Google XLS. A few of the dates listed here are estimates or based on the day they occurred last year. The XLS has urls to back up some of these dates.
| Date | Event | Nats-specific Impact/Winners/Notes |
| Sept 29th, 2013 | Last day of regular season | No Nats post-season for 2013 |
| Oct 1st, 2013 | Beginning of 2013 Post season (NL WC game). End of Year BBWAA award ballots due (prior to beginning of post season) | Some Nats may get some mentions |
| Oct 21rd, 2013 | Sporting News Comeback Players of the Year AL and NL | Mariano Rivera and Francisco Liriano winners |
| Oct 27th, 2013 | Roberto Clemente Award given | Carlos Beltran 2013 winner; Zimmerman best Nats candidate |
| Oct 28th, 2013 | Fielding Bible Awards given | No Nats mentioned |
| Oct 29th, 2013 | Rawlings AL & NL Gold Glove Announcements | Span, Desmond finalists but no awards |
| Oct 30th, 2013 | Last actual day of 2013 World Series; official end of 2013 season | Boston wins Game 6 and takes the 2013 WS 4-2 |
| Oct 31st, 2013 (WS end + 1) | Official start of FA period (8am CST the day after the last game of the WS) | |
| Nov 2nd, 2013 (WS end + 3) | Team and player options must be decided three days after the end of the World Series. (this may be WS + 5 by 2013) | |
| Nov 2nd, 2013 | Clubs have to re-set their 40-man rosters, moving all 60-day DL players back to active. | Nats currently sit at 39/40 with two 60-day DL guys; someone has to get dropped unless the FA’s don’t count against this list. |
| Nov 2nd, 2013 | HoF “Veterans Committee” releases ballot. | |
| Nov 4th, 2013 (WS end + 5) | 5pm: Deadline to make Qualifying offers for your own Fas (average of top 125 salaries or $14.1M for 2014). 5 days after end of WS | was 13.3M for 2013. Nats highly unlikely to offer Qos to their two Fas. |
| Nov 4th, 2013 (WS end + 5) | End of “Quiet Period.” Teams have “exclusive” negotiating rights with their own free agents during this period. | |
| Nov 4th, 2013 (WS end + 5) | 5 days after WS ends: Free agent filing period and exclusive negotiating window ends at 12:01 a.m. ET. Free agents can sign with any team. | Haren, Tracy only Fas for Nats in 2013. |
| Nov 2013 est | MLB Comeback Players of the Year AL and NL | |
| Nov 4th, 2013 (WS end + 5) | Free Agency granted to all eligible Minor League free agents (5 days after the end of the WS). Eligibility done on service time; 6 years ML service for college draftees or 7 years ML service for HS draftees or free agents under the age of 18. | Plenty of significant, long-serving Nats farm hands hitting MLFA this year. |
| Nov 4th, 2013 | Wilson Defensive Player of the Year awards, given by MLB to best defensive player on each club. | Span or Desmond likely in the mix but unlikely to win |
| Nov 5th, 2013 | MLBPA announces “Players Choice” awards: Player of the year, Comeback Player of the year, etc | |
| Nov 7th, 2013 | BBWAA Award Nominees announced on MLB networks | |
| Nov 8th, 2013 | Sporting News Executive of the Year announced | |
| Nov 6th, 2013 | Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Awards | Desmond, Harper may get some attention here. Werth also |
| Nov 11-13, 2013 | GM Meetings, Orlando, FL for 2013 | |
| Nov 11th, 2013 (WS end + 12) | 12 Days after WS ends: Players must accept or reject Qualifying Options | No Nats likely getting Qos |
| Nov 11th, 2013 | AL, NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Awards | Roark get some honorable mention votes? |
| Nov 12th, 2013 | AL and NL Manager of the Year | |
| Nov 13th 2013 | AL and NL Cy Young | Zimmermann may get some top-5 votes but not likely. Strasburg? Doubtful |
| Nov 14th 2013 | AL and NL Most Valuable Player | Werth may get some top-10 votes |
| Nov 14-15th, 2013 | Owners Meetings, Chicago for 2013 | |
| Nov 20th, 2013 | Day to file reserve lists for all Major and Minor League levels. In other words, Last day to add players to 40-man to protect them from the Rule5 Draft | |
| Dec 2nd, 2013 | Midnight: Deadline for teams to Tender contracts to arbitration eligible players. If not tendered, those players immediately become free agents. This is the non-tender deadline for arbitration eligible players | No real non-tender scares for this year’s arbitration eligible list of Nats. |
| Dec 2nd, 2013 | Last day for teams to offer 2014 contracts to unsigned players. (same thing as the non-tender deadline above?) | |
| Dec 9th, 2013 | Last day to request outright waivers to assign player prior to Rule 5 Draft | |
| Dec 9th-12th 2013 | Winter Meetings, Lake Buena Vista/Orlando, FL | |
| Dec 3rd, 2013 | HoF “Veterans Committee” officially releases ballot that was made public ?????? | |
| Early December, 2013 | Baseball America announces its Executives of the Year | |
| Dec 4th, 2013 | MLB Balloting results announced for Hall of Fame Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting | |
| Dec 4th, 2013 | MLB announces winners of 21 “GIBBY” awards (greatnest in Baseball yearly awards) | |
| Dec 12th, 2013 | Rule 5 Draft. Occurs at Winter meetings | |
| Dec 31st, 2013 | Deadline for BBWAA ballots for HoF voting. | |
| Jan 9th, 2014 | Hall of Fame BBWAA voting announced; the HoF class of 2014. | |
| Jan 15th, 2014 | Salary arbitration filing period | |
| Jan 18th, 2014 | Salary arbitration figures exchanged | |
| Feb 1-21, 2014 | Salary arbitration hearings (actual hearing date per player picked at random), Phoenix AZ | |
| Feb 12th, 2014 | Voluntary Spring Training reporting date for Pitchers, Catchers, Injured players | |
| Feb 15th, 2014 | Voluntary Spring Training reporting date for non-pitchers and catchers | |
| Mar 2-11th, 2014 | Contracts of unsigned players who are not yet eligible for Arbitration may be renewed | |
| Early March 2014 | First Spring Training Game for the Nats | |
| March 13th, 2014 | Last day to place a player on unconditional release waivers and pay 30 days termination pay instead of 45 days. | |
| March 27th, 2014 | Deadline to request unconditional release waivers without having to pay the player’s full salary or $100k bonus for certain types of veterans | |
| March 31st, 2014 | 2014 Season Opener; Opening Day 2014; active rosters must be reduced to 25 players and 40-man rosters must be established | |
| March 31st, 2014 | Opening Night 2014: ? Vs ? | |
| April 1st, 2014 | Traditional Opening Day (Cincinnati) |