The rules regarding when teams can begin negotiating with free agents other than their own are very specific and are detailed in Article XX-B of the MLB/MLBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement. The CBA specifically states that teams must wait for five days after the last game of the World Series has concluded before they can contact free agents whom they might be interested in – and vice versa.

This five-day period is known as the “Quiet Period” and it officially ends at 12:00 midnight (ET) on Sunday night, November 3, 2013. At exactly 12:01 AM (ET) on Monday, November 4, the 2013 Hot Stove officially ignites and all major league and minor league free agents may sign with any club that wants them, including their former clubs. And while there probably won’t be a whole lot of wheeling and dealing going on at 12:01 AM on Monday morning, you can bet that GM’s phones across America (and Canada) will begin ringing shortly after the business day begins.

The Heat is On!

History has shown that free agents who sign with teams very early in the Hot Stove season tend to land better contracts than those who wait to sign later in the winter or shortly before spring training, and for obvious reasons. If the free agent isn’t as highly sought after as they (or their agent) think they are, their value might drop significantly as the Hot Stove season wears on. As such, it can be a roll of the dice for a player to hold out for a better deal when that first offer may have been their best offer and is probably no longer on the table, thus forcing them to sign for less than that first offer.

By the same token, teams sometimes pay far more than they might have paid if they had waited a little longer to see what other teams were willing to pay for that same player – if there even are any other teams interested in that player, that is.

Super agents like Scott Boras are masters at inflating a players perceived value by embellishing their past accomplishments or exaggerating their potential, or by trying to liken their client to a much better player. They are also masters at attempting to get teams to bid against themselves by claiming that other teams are “in” on their client to get them to increase their offer when few or even no other teams are interested in their client or are unwilling to pay the outrageous amounts they are seeking for their client.

What absolutely cannot happen, however, is for owners to get together and agree to refuse to negotiate with these agents or players which, of course, is collusion, for which there are very serious financial penalties (in the hundreds of millions).

Make no mistake about it, the negotiating which officially begins early tomorrow morning will be more reminiscent of a high-stakes poker game than teams trying to set their 2014 opening day rosters.

Stay tuned…