The 2024-25 offseason kicks off in earnest this week as the top baseball operations executives gather in San Antonio for the annual General Managers Meetings.

Unlike the Winter Meetings, which is a time for clubs and agents to dive headfirst into the task of roster-building for the upcoming season, these meetings present an opportunity for the league¡¯s executives to gather to discuss the game in general -- and get a jump on potential moves in the making.

• Hot Stove rumors

Executives will be in meetings to discuss league-related issues for most of their time in San Antonio, though they¡¯ll surely find time to begin discussing trade opportunities with each other and meet with agents about this year¡¯s free-agent class.

Here¡¯s a primer on what to expect this week during the GM Meetings:

Free agency officially begins
Thanks to the Dodgers¡¯ tidy five-game World Series triumph, the ¡°quiet period¡± during which teams are not permitted to discuss terms with free agents from other clubs will end Monday at 5 p.m. ET, officially kicking off free agency just as the meetings are set to begin.

Our annual warning: The fact that free agents will be permitted to discuss financial parameters with all 30 clubs as of Monday night doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯ll see any signings during the meetings. But with many agents in San Antonio, the groundwork for this offseason¡¯s deals will certainly begin to be put in place.

Qualifying offer decisions
The end of the ¡°quiet period¡± is also important for free agents who may find themselves receiving a qualifying offer, which allows clubs to receive Draft-pick compensation if the player signs with another club. Monday evening marks the deadline for teams to extend those qualifying offers, after which those free agents will have 15 days to accept or reject the offer, which is worth $21.05 million for the 2025 season.

? Predicting who will receive qualifying offers

A number of top free agents are locks to receive a qualifying offer, including Juan Soto, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, Willy Adames, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Teoscar Hern¨¢ndez and Anthony Santander. All are expected to reject the offer.

Some teams will have interesting decisions to make, as players such as Jurickson Profar, Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, Walker Buehler, Gleyber Torres, Tyler O¡¯Neill and Christian Walker could receive the offer.

Free agents who have received a qualifying offer during their career or who were traded during the 2024 season are not eligible to receive one this offseason. That means free agents including Blake Snell, Joc Pederson, Nathan Eovaldi, Jack Flaherty, Tanner Scott and Yusei Kikuchi are among those who will not be subject to qualifying offers this week.

Trade szn
Although transactions are rare at the GM Meetings, they¡¯re not unheard of. The Rangers acquired Jake Odorizzi from the Braves during the 2022 meetings, while the Rays dealt for Mike Zunino in 2018. Craig Kimbrel, Andrelton Simmons, Aaron Hicks and Jeremy Hellickson were all traded during the meetings in 2015, one of the busier weeks we¡¯ve seen at the event.

? Notable trades made at GM Meetings

But even if no trades are finalized this week, the groundwork for offseason trades is often laid at the meetings, one of the rare times that executives from all 30 clubs are in the same place at the same time. The majority of such talks take place via text and phone conversations, but there¡¯s nothing like sitting across from somebody to get the wheels in motion as teams start to gauge which players might be available in trades and what the acquisition costs would be.

New faces at the top
Last year¡¯s GM Meetings marked the first go-around for Chris Getz of the White Sox, Craig Breslow of the Red Sox and Peter Bendix of the Marlins in lead roles, while David Stearns made his debut as the top dog in the Mets¡¯ baseball operations department.

This year, only one executive will be making his debut at the meetings: Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey.

Posey took over for Farhan Zaidi at the end of September, looking to spark a rebound for a San Francisco club that hasn¡¯t had a winning record or been to the postseason since 2021. The Giants also hired Zack Minasian -- brother of Angels general manager Perry Minasian -- as GM, setting up an interesting week for the pair.

Chaim Bloom, who joined the Cardinals' front office in January as an advisor to president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, has already been tabbed to take over that role after the upcoming season, so the former Red Sox exec will be at the meetings for the first time as a member of the St. Louis front office.