The baseball offseason can be a confusing time, so here is everything you need to know as it pertains to the Phillies.
FREE AGENCY
Important dates: Nov. 3 - First day to sign free agents from other teams. Nov. 23 - Last day to offer salary arbitration to your own free agents in order to be eligible for compensation.
Key decisions: The Phillies are actually in a pretty good position with regard to their two marquee free agents, Rollins and Madson. Both are Type A free agents, which means the Phillies will be eligible to be compensated with two draft picks if either one leaves town. Long story short, the Elias Sports Bureau uses a formula to assign a value to every player in the majors based on their performance over the previous 2 years. Every player above a certain threshold is a Type A player. Every player in the next threshold is Type B. Teams that lose Type A players are eligible to be compensated with two draft picks. Type B players are worth one draft pick.
If both Rollins and Madson leave, the Phillies could end up walking away from the offseason with two extra first-round picks and two extra supplemental-round picks (between the first and the second round). In order to be eligible for compensation, they will have to offer Rollins and/or Madson salary arbitration by Nov. 23. If the player accepts, he essentially will be agreeing to a 1-year contract at a salary determined by an arbitrator (or agreed upon by the two sides ahead of time).
