Welcome back to the latest edition of Todd Zolecki's Phillies Beat newsletter!  

Did you watch the World Series or were the wounds still too fresh?

If you watched, even for an inning or two, then you probably played the “What if?” game. What if the Phillies had better at-bats in the final five games of the NL Championship Series? What if the Phillies didn’t lose Game 3 on a ninth-inning walk-off or blow a 5-2 lead in the seventh inning of Game 4?

Maybe Philadelphia would have given the Rangers a better fight than the D-backs. Maybe everybody in the Delaware Valley would be trying to figure out how to pull their kids from school for a parade.

Instead, the Phillies are looking for ways to retool and improve so they don’t suffer the same fate in 2024.

Here are some questions you might have about the offseason:

What are the key dates to know?
Today: Teams can trade Major League players again, and eligible players become free agents. For the first few days of free agency, free agents can only negotiate with their own team.

Sunday: Gold Glove Award winners and BBWAA Award finalists will be announced.

Major League free agents can sign with any team, and teams must make qualifying offers to free agents by 5 p.m. ET. Teams and players must make decisions on contract options, too.

Nov. 7-9: GM Meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Nov. 13-16: BBWAA Award winners announced. It starts with Rookie of the Year on Nov. 13 and continues on subsequent nights for Manager of the Year, Cy Young and MVP.

Nov. 14: The deadline for players to accept a qualifying offer is 4 p.m. ET. The deadline to add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft is 6 p.m. ET.

Nov. 17: Tender deadline. It is also known as the non-tender deadline. By 8 p.m. ET, teams must formally tender 2024 contracts to unsigned players, including any arbitration-eligible players. If a player is non-tendered, he becomes a free agent.

Dec. 4-6: Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tenn., including the MLB Draft lottery on Dec. 5 and the Rule 5 Draft on Dec. 6.

Jan. 12, 2024: Eligible players and their teams exchange arbitration figures.

Jan. 15, 2024: Start of the new international signing period.

Which players are free agents?
Rhys Hoskins, Craig Kimbrel, Michael Lorenzen and Aaron Nola. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said last week that resigning Nola is the Phillies’ No. 1 offseason priority, but Nola will be a top target for any team in need of starting pitching (and with at least $100 million or so laying around).

Dombrowski said they do not know about Hoskins’ future in Philadelphia until the Phillies know where Bryce Harper will play. If Harper stays at first, it likely ends Hoskins’ time in Philly. If Harper returns to right field, Hoskins’ path to return opens.

Kimbrel is unlikely to return. Lorenzen wants to start. It is difficult to see how he fits into Philly’s rotation with Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suárez, Taijuan Walker, Cristopher Sánchez and either Nola or Nola’s replacement. (Dombrowski said the Phillies must sign a comparable talent to Nola if he signs elsewhere.)

Who might receive a qualifying offer?
A qualifying offer is a one-year contract worth the average value of the league’s 125 highest-paid players. It will be set at approximately $20.5 million. Teams make qualifying offers to free agents so they receive Draft-pick compensation if they sign elsewhere.

The Phillies will make a qualifying offer to Nola. If he signs elsewhere, Philadelphia will receive a pick following the fourth round of the 2024 MLB Draft.

Hoskins, Kimbrel and Lorenzen are not expected to received qualifying offers.

Which players have options?
The Phillies have a $13 million club option for Scott Kingery, or they will take a $1 million buyout.

They will take the buyout.

Who is eligible for salary arbitration?
Alec Bohm, Jake Cave, Dylan Covey, Jeff Hoffman, Edmundo Sosa, Gregory Soto, Garrett Stubbs and Suárez.

Is anybody a candidate to be non-tendered?
Bohm, Hoffman, Sosa, Soto, Stubbs and Suárez are likely to be tendered contracts. Cave and Covey are candidates to be non-tendered, based on their spots on the 26-man roster.

Who needs to be added to the 40-man roster?
Two players on the Phillies’ Top 30 Prospect Rankings must be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being selected in the Rule 5 Draft, but it does not mean they will be: outfielder Carlos De La Cruz (No. 6) and left-hander Samuel Aldegheri (No. 28). Players in the Arizona Fall League who are eligible for the Rule 5 Draft include infielder/outfielder Matt Kroon, left-hander Jordi Martinez, infielder Oliver Dunn and right-hander Dominic Pipkin.

What does the Phillies’ payroll look like?
The Phillies had a franchise-record payroll of $245.4 million in 2023, according to Spotrac, exceeding MLB's luxury tax threshold of $233 million. No team wants to pay the luxury tax, but the Phillies are expected to keep spending in their pursuit of a World Series championship.

When asked about his conversations with Phillies managing partner John Middleton regarding payroll, Dombrowski said, “I’ve talked preliminarily with John. … I would be surprised if we don’t have the finances to support what we need to do.”

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