Welcome to the MLB offseason

The World Series is over, with the Cubs and Indians needing extra innings in Game 7 to decide it. With the baseball season now complete, the offseason is here, and the first week will feature a flurry of decisions.

On Thursday morning, nine Dodgers will be free agents — Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner, Rich Hill, Chase Utley, Josh Reddick, J.P. Howell, Joe Blanton, Brett Anderson and Jesse Chavez.

There is a five-day “quiet period” that lasts until Monday night at 9 p.m. PT, during which no free agent may sign with a new team though they can negotiate with anyone. Teams may re-sign their own free agents at any time.

“I expect we'll have ongoing dialogue with essentially each and every one of them,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said last week.

The Dodgers have a team option on Carlos Ruiz worth $4.5 million in 2017, with a $500,000 buyout. Scott Kazmir has two years and $32 million left on his contract, but can opt for free agency if he so chooses. We will know these decisions this week.

By Monday at 2 p.m. PT, teams must decide whether to make qualifying offers for their free agents. That is a one-year, $17.2 million offer that, if declined, would net the Dodgers a compensatory draft pick between the first and second rounds in 2017.

In the first three years of the qualifying offer system, all 34 offers were declined, but last offseason four of the 20 offers were accepted, including Anderson returning to the Dodgers.

Players will have one week, until 2 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 14 to accept or decline the qualifying offer.

The Dodgers currently have 47 players on the 40-man roster, but the 60-day disabled list goes away this week so no more having more than 40 players on the roster. By Thursday morning, with the nine free agents, that number will be trimmed to 38.