One of the expected casualties of the upcoming lockout is the certainty of the timing of the salary arbitration process heading into the 2027 season.
Had this been a normal offseason, the exchange date for salary arbitration would have been Friday, January 8 based on the current collective bargaining agreement, or perhaps more likely Thursday, January 7, as the MLB office moved that date up a day in each of the last few years. The exchange date tends to be a soft deadline of sorts, by which deals get done. The Dodgers reached deals with all four of their arbitration-eligible players by January 8, 2026, for instance.