Baseball's G.M. Meetings Have, for Them, a Splashy Agenda INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - Major league baseball's general manager meetings are generally considered the dull cousin of the splashier winter meetings, a low-profile November prelude to the free-agent signings and trades that sometimes dominate the December gathering. One reason the annual G.M. meetings garner less attention is because they serve in part to discuss procedural issues and rule changes. When a trade or signing does occur, it serves as a welcome break for fans starving for some hot-stove intrigue. But the general managers do not necessarily see it that way. "Believe it or not, there can be spirited discussion on rules and administration," a team executive said. Still, the 2012 version of the G.M. meetings might indeed create some buzz, with instant replay likely to be a significant issue this week. As well, new compensation rules enacted by the collective bargaining agreement signed last year might create more free-agent activity than usual at this point of the off-season. As for expanding instant replay, which now is restricted to home run calls, Commissioner Bud Selig and Joe Torre, who is the executive vice president for baseball operations, have publicly said they are hesitant to make groundbreaking changes to the game. But at some point, their views are likely to clash with a younger generation of league officials and general managers who believe that the technology exists to improve the accuracy of any number of the game's most controversial calls. The possible changes include enacting a challenge-based replay system in which managers would be allowed to appeal certain calls by the umpires. Exactly which calls would be eligible for an appeal will be discussed. Another possibility will be to use tracking-ball technology similar to what is used for tennis to electronically monitor line calls. The cause for increased replay was aided by several controversial calls during the playoffs, most notably a much-debated infield fly ruling in the wild-card play-in game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves. Yankees Manager Joe Girardi spoke out in favor of more instant replay after a clearly incorrect call hurt the Yankees in their Game 2 loss to the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series. "In this day and age when we have instant replay available to us, it's got to change," Girardi told reporters after the game. I have been thrown out of games enough to know it would be quicker to get the call wrong or right on the replay than for me to go out there and argue. Yet while the replay issue will probably be a key ingredient of the meetings, others topics, like pitcher safety, a possible worldwide draft and the World Baseball Classic are also likely to be discussed. Recent incidents in which the Oakland's Brandon McCarthy and Detroit's Doug Fister were struck in the head by line drives have raised the question as to whether protective helmets should be required for pitchers when they are on the mound. Although a major presentation on the topic will occur at the winter meetings, discussion of the issue will begin this week. "A G.M. asked that we give them a status update," said Daniel Halem, an executive vice president for Major League Baseball. Of course, discussions of all these issues would be overshadowed if a major free agent signed this week while the G.M. meetings were taking place. In previous years, teams were not required to offer their own free agents arbitration until the first week of December. Another team wanting to sign a free agent might not know until then whether they would have to surrender a draft pick to sign that player. That tended to slow the whole process. Now, under the new bargaining agreement that altered the arbitration system, teams must decide shortly after the World Series whether to make a qualifying offer to their own free agents, meaning that they would be offered a one-year contract at the average salary of the top 125 players ($13.3 million this year). The deadline for qualifying offers was last Friday. Players have one week to accept that offer, or to decline it. If they do decline, whatever team signs them has to surrender a draft pick. Among the notable players who received qualifying offers are Josh Hamilton, Michael Bourn, Kyle Lohse, Adam LaRoche, and the Yankees" Nick Swisher, Rafael Soriano and Hiroki Kuroda. These players could decline their qualifying offers this week and conceivably sign during the G.M. meetings. Those notable free agents who did not receive qualifying offers include Torii Hunter, Edwin Jackson, Angel Pagan and Mike Napoli. These players are more likely to find a new team more quickly because teams already know they would not have to surrender a draft pick to sign them. There might even be a signing or two this week. And with so many possibilities for news, the G.M. meetings might actually start gaining the reputation of being the official start of baseball's busy off-season.