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LAS VEGAS — Major League Baseball’s general managers meetings are an important event on the offseason calendar every year. But the impending lockout puts extra emphasis this year on the three days baseball’s operations leaders will spend in Las Vegas this week.
GM meetings are generally the precursor to the more widely-attended winter meetings in December, but this year’s winter meetings are expected to be canceled in the face of a lockout. And if anxiety over a possible salary cap doesn’t put the free agent and trade markets on ice, the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement on Dec. 1 could spur early action.
The Dodgers are poised to make news one way or another, with an opening on the coaching staff to fill, a finalist for a major award, and the belle of the 2026-27 free agent class testing the market.
Here are four story lines to follow as GM meetings get underway:
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The search for a hitting coach
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The Dodgers parted ways with co-hitting coach Aaron Bates last week. So, expect president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes to field questions about their plans to fill the position, from qualities they’re seeking in a replacement to a timeline for the hire or promotion.
The rest of manager Dave Roberts’ coaching staff, including co-hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc are expected to return.
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Tarik Skubal’s free agency
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Tarik Skubal, whom the Dodgers acquired from the Tigers at the trade deadline this year, is the top free agent in a fraught offseason and will be a fascinating litmus test for the market.
The last time MLB was counting down to a lockout, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Javy Báez all signed nine-figure contracts before it went into effect at the end of the day on Dec. 1. Like Seager and Semien, Skubal is represented by agent Scott Boras.
Whether the Dodgers will make an early aggressive play to bring back the two-time Cy Young winner remains to be seen.
“I can’t say enough good things about the impact that he made in such a short period of time,” Friedman said in his end of season news conference last month. “We have a tremendous amount of respect for him on and off the field, and for us, he’s put himself in this position to go out and be a free agent. And for us, it’s, continue to talk to Scott. But he and his family have to make a choice over where they want to spend the next X number of years, and obviously we wish him nothing but the best.”
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Comparison to 2021
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Just how similar will this November be to 2021, when teams committed $1.9 billion to free agents before the lockout? The short answer is: it’s hard to say with any certainty.
“I never have any feel for how a market’s going to play out,” Friedman said. “We’ve kidded ourselves in the past that, like, ‘Hey, we think this is going to happen,’ and it just takes on its own life form. So for us, it’s just about being as prepared as we possibly can be, and pouncing on opportunities.”
Though the expectation of a lockout remains the same, the owners and players are fighting over a potential overhaul of the system this time around. MLB’s push for a salary cap in their early proposals — even though their latest pushed back implementation to 2028 — could affect teams’ behavior.
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Most Valuable Player race
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It’s baseball awards season, with the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America announcing award winners for four straight days.
Detroit Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle was named the American League rookie of the year and Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sal Stewart was honored as the National League rookie of the year on Monday.
Manager of the year awards will be revealed Tuesday, Cy Young and reliever of the year on Wednesday, and finally MVP on Thursday.
Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is a finalist for National League MVP. But Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is the favorite to win it, which would end Ohtani’s three-year MVP streak. Ohtani has won four MVP awards in all, two in the AL and two in the NL.
On Wednesday, MLB will also hold its own awards show, announcing All-MLB teams, and awards such as the Hank Aaron Award, the comeback players of the year, the Mariano Rivera & Trevor Hoffman Relievers of the Year, the Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter of the Year and the MLB executive of the year.
The post Four Dodgers-related story lines to follow at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas appeared first on Los Angeles Times.