The 2025 MLB Winter Meetings kick off this weekend in Orlando, Florida. While the General Manager (GM) Meetings often lay the groundwork for deals, there tends to be much more actual activity at the Winter meetings which brings together player agents, team execs, general managers and baseball media from all markets. With just six of MLB’s top 25 ranked free agents already locked down, this is sure to be a period of big time negotiations and possibly some top-tier players changing uniforms for the 2026 season. So far it’s been a relatively quiet time with only two major trades, one between the Mets and Rangers and the other between the Orioles and Angels this off season, so speculation is high that deals will get done this week.

Another important component of the Winter Meetings is the Rule 5 Draft. Players first signed at age 18 or younger must be added to 40-man rosters within five seasons or they become eligible to be drafted by other organizations through the Rule 5 process which will take place this year on Wednesday, December 10. The A’s added righty hurler Braden Nett, the team’s number four prospect and Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang to the 40-man roster to protect them from the draft but left three other top-30 prospects vulnerable to the draft (Daniel Susac, C (No. 11), Kenya Huggins, RHP (No. 23), and Brennan Milone, 3B (No. 26).

With the A’s focusing solely on roster depth this off-season so far, hopes are that a high quality arm or two will be added to the rotation and the back-end of the bullpen soon. These meetings could also bring some contract extensions for some of our younger and most promising bats.

With the ever-increasing spector of a work stoppage in 2027 there has been some fear that team managment will be cautious about extensions and long-term contracts. But unless it’s propaganda and gamesmanship, the concensus is that the uncertaintanty will not hinder the spending. The Winter Meetings may give us our first real indications if this is true. The official meetings begin on December 8 and run through December 11.

In case you missed the depth signings: