The Cubs' Offseason Starts for Real Monday: Qualifying Offers, Options and a 40-Man Roster Squeeze

The baseball offseason gets going in full force on Monday, Bleacher Nation notes, with four pieces of machinery all moving on the same day: the five-day exclusive window for teams to talk to their own outgoing free agents expires, the qualifying-offer submission deadline arrives, options decisions come due, and players on the 60-day injured list have to be returned to the 40-man roster — the last of which usually means a wave of fringe roster movement across the league.

For the Cubs, that 40-man squeeze is softer than it looks: the club carries an outsized nine players on the 60-day injured list, but an even larger group of outgoing free agents opened roster spots for them to return to. The live item is the options list. Clay Holmes technically has not yet declined his $12 million player option; Bleacher Nation reports it fully expects he will, and that it hopes the Cubs talk to Holmes about a new deal — his name sits at the top of the club's outgoing free-agent picture either way. Behind him are smaller calls: Javier Assad, who is controllable through arbitration in any case, and team options on Colin Rea and Jacob Webb.

The winter also opens with hardware on the North Side. Alex Bregman is the first Cubs third baseman since Ron Santo to win a Gold Glove — in fact, Bleacher Nation notes, the two are the only Cubs ever to win the award at third base — and Pete Crow-Armstrong joined him among the club's Gold Glove winners. Monday is only the first day of the market; the Cubs' front office has not historically been the type to set it early, and the qualifying-offer and option answers due today will draw the map the rest of Chicago's winter follows.