<P> The Winter Meetings are an annual event, held each December, in which representatives of all 30 Major League Baseball teams and their 160 minor league baseball affiliates convene for four days to discuss league business and conduct off - season trades and transactions . Attendees include league executives, team owners, general managers, team scouts, visitors from baseball - playing countries, trade show exhibitors, and people seeking employment with minor league organizations . The Rule 5 draft, in which minor league players who are not on a team's 40 - man roster can be drafted by a major league team, is held on the last day of the meetings . </P> <P> The 2017 Winter Meetings were held from December 9 to 13 at the Swan and Dolphin resort in Orlando, Florida . Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas will host in 2018 . </P> <P> The tradition of baseball holding off - season meetings during December dates back to 1876, the first offseason of the National League . At the 1876 meetings, William Hulbert was selected to be the league's president, and two teams (the New York Mutuals and Philadelphia Athletics) were expelled from the league for failing to play all their scheduled games . The Winter Meetings became an annual event in 1901 . </P>

What hotel are the baseball winter meetings at