Miami Marlins October Preview
By Chris Logel

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.
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