After the Milwaukee Brewers won their first World Series title in franchise history, the focus has turned to the offseason, which is highly likely to be interrupted come December when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires. At this point, a lockout seems like a foregone conclusion.

But what happens leading up the lockout? Will that impact free agency in terms of how long it takes for players to sign? Perhaps it could speed things up a little bit before the sport completely shuts down.

On Foul Territory, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic shared what he expects will happen before December 1.

"We saw before the last lockout, there was a flurry of activity," Rosenthal said. "There was no threat of a salary cap then, so it's a little bit of a different environment, but I do expect there will be a bigger number of teams that are actively looking to improve."

What will happen before the lockout?

The free agent market was buzzing before the last lockout, and once the lockout ended, the same thing took place leading up to the regular season. Rosenthal does note that a cap won't take effect right away, so teams can still add to their rosters without having to worry too much about it.

If that's the case, then a lot of teams are likely going to be aggressively looking to improve their rosters as the offseason begins and the lockout draws closer. The threat of a salary cap may also lead to smaller market teams adding more players in free agency since they likely will not be affected by that system given where their payrolls are in comparison to bigger market teams.

But it's going to be an interesting month of November as the baseball world tries to come up with a solution for the next CBA. Both the players and owners are very far apart in negotiations, so the expectation is that the lockout is going to take quite some time, which could even lead to the cancellation of games and the shortening of the 2027 season.

It's also possible that the entire 2027 season could be cancelled if it gets ugly. Things aren't exactly looking up in terms of avoiding a lockout, which is why Rosenthal's prediction may come true and teams will look to make some moves before the sport shuts down.

We'll see how the month of November plays out.