The first month after baseball season ends is normally pretty slow. Teams give qualifying offers to the players who are about to be free agents and most of the time they are declined. But December is when things get interesting; especially with this year’s free agent class. With names like Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Dallas Keuchel as free agents, teams will be spending a ton of money trying to get a top tier player on their roster. The problem with teams giving so much money on a player, when they need to resign a certain top tier player of their own, they might not be able to because they can’t afford him. Look at the Arizona Diamondbacks; they signed pitcher Zach Greinke to a six year 206.5 million dollar contract. Now the Diamondbacks have a good chance to make the playoffs but two of their best players are free agents and they may not be able to re-sign them. 

December is the most important month in the off-season because that is when the annual coaches meeting happens. When all the coaches meet they discuss rule changes and how to improve the game with the commissioner of baseball. With the coaches meeting, coaches will meet and discuss potential trades that will improve both teams. The biggest off-season trade has been when the Yankees traded for the Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton. December is the must-watch part of the off-season.

With December quickly approaching and with many of the leagues top players on the market, money will be spent and groundbreaking deals will be made. Teams like the Phillies have already foreshadowed that they will be spending this money this off-season and may even be a little stupid about it. It’s a waiting game now, but this has been the free agent class that everyone has been talking about for a few years.