The World Series is underway, and all players with expiring contracts will become free agents at 9 a.m. the day after the Red Sox and Dodgers finish up.
Here's a list of key dates in a crucial upcoming offseason for the Phillies:
5 days after World Series ends
Exactly five days after free agency is declared, players are free to sign with new teams.
15 days after World Series ends
The deadline for free agents to accept the one-year qualifying offer from their former team.
Philadelphia Phillies
Complete coverage of the Fightin' Phils and their MLB rivals from NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Aside from Wilson Ramos, the Phillies have no soon-to-be free agents of note. Just veterans unlikely to be back like Asdrubal Cabrera, Jose Bautista and Aaron Loup.
We took an early look in August at what it might take to re-sign Ramos. The picture has changed a bit with his continued health issues in the month of September.
Nov. 6-8 - GM Meetings
The general managers' meetings in California. Not quite as sexy as the Winter Meetings five weeks later, but this is where the feeling-out process for trades can begin. It's also where league issues are discussed.
Nov. 4-15 - Awards season
Gold Gloves on Nov. 4.
Executive of the Year on Nov. 5.
Silver Sluggers on Nov. 8.
Rookies of the Year on Nov. 12.
Managers of the Year on No. 13.
Cy Youngs on Nov. 15.
MVPs on Nov. 15.
• Aaron Nola should finish third in the NL Cy Young race, behind Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer.
• The Phillies will not have any Gold Glovers or Silver Sluggers.
• Ronald Acuña Jr. or Juan Soto will be NL Rookie of the Year, likely Acuña. In many other years, Walker Buehler would have gotten it.
• Curious to see if Gabe Kapler gets Manager of the Year votes. Obviously a wretched collapse, but he'll get credit nationally for the 14-win increase.
Nov. 30 - Non-tender deadline
This is the deadline for teams to decide whether to go through the arbitration process with eligible players or let them walk.
The Phillies are a young team so they have a host of interesting cases.
• Nola will be making 10 times more in 2019 than he did in 2018. Nola was at $573,000 this past season and has a first-year arbitration projection of $6.6 million.
• What happens with Cesar Hernandez ($8.9M projection) and Maikel Franco ($5.1M)? The non-tender deadline being Nov. 30 means we could see a trade of one or both players in the days or weeks before.
If the Phillies can't find a suitable offer, it makes sense for a team with deep pockets to extend them contracts and hope to work out a trade later.
More on all the arbitration-eligible Phillies here.
Dec. 9-13 - Winter Meetings in Las Vegas
The baseball equivalent of draft day in the NBA or NFL. This is when most of the big trades go down and when groundwork is laid for future deals or free-agent signings.
By the end of the week of the Winter Meetings last year, the Phillies had signed Pat Neshek and Tommy Hunter and traded Freddy Galvis. A few days later, the Carlos Santana signing became official.
Dec. 13 - Rule 5 draft
Jan. 11 - Arbitration figures exchanged
Feb. 1-20 - Arbitration hearings
Feb. 22 - Phillies' first major-league spring training game
March 28 - Regular season opener at home vs. Braves
Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games easily on your device.