Miami Marlins October Preview

Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

With the Miami Marlins 2013 season in the record books, October gives us a chance to look back and analyze the high’s and low’s that the Marlins provided us with this season. This provides closure for us and also allows us to look ahead at the upcoming season because after all, in March everyone is tied.

I wanted to preview the upcoming month of October to let you know important dates to watch for as the Marlins progress into their offseason. Very few teams make significant moves during the season which means this is the time that teams can truly get better or worse, depending on the deals that are made.

Here is the upcoming MLB schedule:

September 30-October 15

Article XX(D) free agency period

October 1

NL Wild Card Game, TBS

October 2

AL Wild Card Game, TBS

October 3

NL Division Series begin, TBS

October 4

AL Division Series begin, TBS & MLB Network

October 11

NL Championship Series begins, TBS

October 12

AL Championship Series begins, FOX

October 23

World Series begins, FOX

Right after WS

Eligible XX(B) players become free agents

Now here are the dates that we can look forward to. We have already started the Article XX(d) free agency period. This basically gives any player who has at least 3 years of Major League service, and whose contract is assigned outright to a minor league club, to declare for free agency. That would give someone like Kevin Kouzmanoff the ability to declare for free agency a little earlier than the major league upcoming free agents who won’t be able to declare until the World Series is over.

There are obviously some fine print and exceptions to this rule but what it signifies is the ability for the Marlins to improve on their roster.

With the World Series schedule to start on October 23rd, there is a good chance that October could see the major league free agents kick off also. Look for that to happen around October 31st or the first part of November.