The Blue Jays are heading into a frantic November, with free agency opening Monday and a likely lockout looming Dec. 1. Ross Atkins has about a month to reshape the roster.

Free agency officially begins at 5 p.m. ET on Monday. That's also the deadline for options and qualifying offers, though neither is expected to involve Toronto, per the Toronto Sun.

Then the real clock starts. The collective bargaining agreement expires at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 1, and a work stoppage is widely expected.

That's why this month could be wild. Teams can spend freely until the lockout, and free agents have every reason to get deals done before contact stops.

Toronto has done this before. The Jays signed Kevin Gausman on Dec. 1, 2021, a day before the last lockout began.

What's the fight about? A salary cap, and neither side looks ready to budge.

Mark Shapiro has navigated seven labour fights in 35 years

Brewers reliever Trevor Megill made the players' stance clear during the postseason. “If they're going to sit there and wave their little magic wand at us and say they are going to get a salary cap, it's not going to happen,” he said.

Mark Shapiro was measured at his season-ending news conference. “The way you go through it is you prepare under the current system and then you adjust along the way,” he said, noting it's his seventh tense labour situation in 35 years in MLB.

Key dates are stacking up. The GM meetings run Nov. 10 to 12 in Las Vegas and could carry extra weight if the Winter Meetings are cancelled.

The non-tender deadline is Nov. 20. Ernie Clement, Louis Varland, José Soriano, Bowden Francis, Spencer Arrighetti, Josh Smith and Nathan Lukes are among the Jays facing contract decisions.

Eight Jays have hit the market: Shane Bieber, Max Scherzer, George Springer, Yimi Garcia, Patrick Corbin, Jameson Taillon, Paul Sewald and Luis Urias. Bieber is the most likely reunion target.

Atkins can't afford to wait. If the best bats and arms sign elsewhere in November, the Jays may not get another shot until spring, assuming spring arrives on time.

November is the store's closing-time rush. Whatever's still on the shelves at midnight on Dec. 1 might sit there for months.

The 2027 opener is scheduled for March 25 at Yankee Stadium. Whether that date holds is anyone's guess, which makes the next 30 days the most important stretch of Toronto's winter.