Every year in early winter, a swarm of sportswear descends on some gigantic, labyrinthine hotel to whisper, complain, chat and drink.
These are the MLB Winter Meetings, an annual gathering of handshakes, deals and general industry talk. If you’re a casual baseball fan, you’ve probably heard meetings mentioned as a place where business is done in the off-season. That’s kind of true. The event (this year’s edition will take place Sunday through Wednesday in Dallas) is much more and much less than that.
It’s best to think of the meeting as the annual convention of the baseball world.
Besides the All-Star Game and the World Series, this event is probably the stretch of the calendar that attracts the largest number of baseball players to one place. Those people include the biggest bigwigs: team owners, executives, agents and the occasional player. However, highly sought after players rarely, if ever, attend. They’re usually lower-level free agents or established veterans with offseason homes in the area who stop by to say hello.
Winter meetings are also a place to ask about a job, interview for a job, or accept a job. An army of energetic young people, wide-eyed and eager to work in baseball, will dot the lobby handing out resumes by the dozen. Some of these applicants have meetings scheduled with potential employers, but many do not.
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Throughout the week, agents meet with teams. Companies meet with teams. Teams meet with other teams. The teams meet with each other. Those meetings take place upstairs in hotel suites, out of sight of the media. Meanwhile, fans from the host city wander the halls hoping to catch a glimpse of something interesting. Your best chance is usually the hotel bar, where you can often find a retired baseball player or two having a drink.
Every once in a while, news breaks that sends crowds of reporters running to their laptops. A major trade or signing may require an in-person press conference. There’s usually about one a year, plus the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee’s announcement that it sends a few more people to Cooperstown. In 2023, Jackson Chourio and the Brewers announced his contract extension at the winter meetings. In 2017, Giancarlo Stanton appeared in pinstripes on the podium less than 48 hours after the Marlins traded him to the Yankees.
In recent years, the MLB Draft Lottery has also been held during the meetings. It’s quite a strange sight: representatives of the worst teams in the league waiting on stage, waiting for the odds to fall in their favor. There are no ping-pong balls, but it’s still pretty entertaining. The Rule 5 draft also takes place on the final day, with teams hoping to uncover undervalued minor league players trapped in other teams’ farm systems.
In reality, however, there is a lot of waiting, talking, and talking. As Pulitzer Prize-winning sportswriter Arthur Daley wrote in the December 11, 1947, edition of the New York Times:
“Baseball meetings never seem to change from year to year. Nor does anyone in the cast of characters seem to age a day. Maybe that sedentary life keeps them young because they are the most incredible collection of lobbyists you have ever seen.”
The winter meetings began out of necessity. Before cell phones, computers, fax machines and the like, meeting in a central location once each winter was the most convenient way for baseball executives to communicate and conduct business in the off-season. The first edition was held back in 1876, when the National League met expel two clubs for refusing to take the last road trip of the season.
As the sport grew over time, the event became an incubator for exchanges, with executives working out details over a few drinks in the hotel lobby. Another Daley New York Times article from 1950 tells the story of New York Giants captain Leo Durocher pacing the Lord Baltimore Hotel and yelling to no one in particular: “Does anyone want to make a trade? “I’m willing.” And when free agency took the league by storm in the 1970s, agents flocked to meetings to negotiate on behalf of their clients.
Nowadays, the real business happens out of sight. Some executives avoid lobbying to avoid being attacked by members of the media and job applicants. Others enjoy the chat and have been known to linger in the hotel bar long after last call.
Some years, meetings are a snoozefest. Last December, reporters wandered aimlessly around the comically large Opryland Resort in Nashville, waiting for Shohei Ohtani to sign. He didn’t do so until the following weekend, which contributed to the meetings turning into an arctic chill. There were rumors about a Juan Soto trade, but that deal wasn’t finalized until everyone left Nashville. The most important transaction of the meetings turned out to be the trade between the Yankees and the Red Sox Alex Verdugo.
But sometimes, the annual meeting produces drama of the highest order. In 2022, an incorrect report claiming that free agent Aaron Judge and the San Francisco Giants had agreed to terms sent the entire conference into a frenzy. In 2019, agent Scott Boras completed massive contracts for Stephen Strasburg, Anthony Rendon and Gerrit Cole over three consecutive days. At the 1992 meetings in Louisville, a young player named Barry Bonds signed a historic six-year, $43 million contract with the Giants. In 2011, the last time the winter meetings were in Dallas, A guy fell into a water fountain in the lobby. Also in Dallas: Alex Rodríguez signed his huge contract with the Texas Rangers in 2000.
This edition could be spicy, depending on when Juan Soto, this winter’s biggest fish, signs what is sure to be a record contract. Nothing is imminent, but the consensus around the game is that the meetings won’t end with Soto still on the open market.
In fact, all signs indicate that Dallas will see a relatively large number of transactions. Baseball’s offseasons are known to drag on, with top free agents holding out until early spring. People don’t think that will be the case this time around, which could mean some particularly nice and eventful winter gatherings. Let’s cross our fingers.