Major League Baseball has informed teams that this year’s trade deadline will be Monday, August 3 at 6:00 pm Eastern, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. It’s pushed back a few days relative to last season’s deadline, which was on the final Thursday in July.
MLB prefers to have the deadline on weekdays. They set the cutoff in the evening so there are no ongoing games. That reduces the chances of a player being traded mid-game and “hug watch” scenarios. MLB has at least one day game scheduled for each of July 29-31 of the preceding week. There are getaway games on Wednesday and Thursday, while the Cubs are hosting the Yankees for a standard Wrigley Field day game on Friday, July 31. It seems MLB preferred to push back a few days, as all eight games on August 3 begin at 6:40 Eastern or later.
The flexible deadline is a feature of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. Under previous CBAs, there was a fixed July 31 deadline. MLB now has the freedom to set the deadline on any date between July 28 and August 3. This is the first time that MLB has chosen the latest available date.
Why would Bart Giamatti do this to us????
Because he hates us.
#Enjoy sack lunch
Because the Dodgers are ruining baseball?
August 3rd is way too late for a trade deadline. Everything must change all the time, and just can’t stay the same. It’s just Manfred always having to be in full control of everything.
I disagree. With more teams in the playoffs than in earlier times, there are more teams unwilling to pull the trigger on giving up in July. A later deadline means more action, and in particular, ensures that the best players in the game will be on playoff teams.
The suspense is already killing me.
fear – I can just picture it now ….. at 5:45PM EST on August 3rd Breslow calls up the Tigers and offers Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval for Skubal.
Harris replies with a hearty laugh and then immediately hangs up on him.
An hour later Breslow holds a press conference explaining he tried but the Tigers just didn’t align with him.
Fever—Well played! lol
Nailed it! Thanks, FPG.
Copy/paste, change six words, and I can apply it to the other 28 teams, too!!
kodion – This was the impetus for my post ;O)
fansided.com/mlb/red-sox-botched-their-chance-at-l…
“It’s not uncommon for deadline deals to come down to the wire, but those deals typically have been negotiated for some time and just take until the last second to finalize. But apparently with the Red Sox, Craig Breslow decided he didn’t want to “seriously” engage in talks about acquiring Ryan until 15 minutes before the deadline. According to a report from The Athletic’s Dan Hayes, Minnesota didn’t have much time at all to consider whatever packages Boston was offering, much less make a considered counter.”
That is almost right the only detail that will change is that the Tigers will say that it is a great offer and they accept it because Crawford and Sandoval are proven win-now players and Mr illitch will mention the success of the Anthony Davis trade for the mavericks
don’t tell me you’re gonna put a runner on second in the tenth but not let us have hug watch. THEO!
It will also be formally known as Luis Robert Jr Day from now on.
Later is better. A few more days for teams to decide if they want to sell.
True but Mid to Late August Would’ve made more sense.
Many teams still are ‘mathematically in contention at August 3rd.
The first Monday after 7/31 should be the new rule…So anywhere between 8/1 and 8/7.
For a minute I thought they were talking about a CBA lockout.
Final deadline before the temporary end of baseball? Maybe they change some deadline rules while negotiating
This is quite helpful. I don’t look at the trade deadline much until it actually comes to like mid July. We can probably add a left handed bat and catcher at in the Offseason. Looks like LHP starter is our deadline priority and whatever problems arise in the season.
The Astros will be nowhere near being a playoff qualifier so you are not trading for anything less than a Yankees castoff!!!
First off, I’m pretty sure prospects would be better than a Yankees castoff. So that’s what we would trade for if we were rebuilding.
The Astros are a playoff team. Tell me why they wouldn’t be.
All the teams that made the AL postseason have either stood (mostly) pat (SEA/NYY) or improved (TOR, BOS. CLE/DET-younger players maturing). This along with teams that missed extra innings but are improving/made significant additions such as BAL, CHI (laugh at your peril), SAC and TEX further reduces HOU chances at making the playoffs. If HOU were outstanding either offensively, defensively or had amongst the best pitching in either league, then it would be an easier path. They aren’t and don’t.
They will have a full season of Yordan Alvarez, better health, injured assets like Javier, Arrighetti, Hader, and Dezenzo (just to name a few) ready to go, we should be a good team. For DET, you put younger players maturing, everyone’s young players mature, Detroit has more than others, but guys like Cam Smith, Zach Cole, and more have also matured.
You can question whether the injured players step up or not, but they will. They are ready to go.
It will likely come down to season series wins vs losses in the AL this year like it did with the Mets and Reds last season. Tiebreakers are huge. Just thinking CHI, SAC, TEX and BAL all picking up at least 5 more wins this year (has 3 of 4 at or above .500). CHI is not going to lose 100+ games (again) in 2026. Feel like they’ll finish with 74-76 wins. No one in the AL ran away with it in any division last year and seems like things possibly even tighter this season. It was a 7 game spread between the top and bottom seeds in the AL last year. This year…it could be a 5 game spread.
The one thing you can be reasonably certain of is that you will, in fact, not get a full season out of Yordan Alvarez.
He’s been in the majors for 6 proper seasons and has only eclipsed 140 games twice and his most ever is 147 games.
What you may have meant to say was: you are hopeful of having Yordan for as long as you can get him.
And are the Astros not? Right, nobody ran away with it in any division. We fell behind by 3 games with the injuries, and so did the Rangers (well by more than 3 games). The Astros are in the mix. You are acting like a Mariners fan who thinks that once they beat the Astros, the Astros aren’t going back to the playoffs.
That’s why the Asrtos are moving him to DH.
It’s to avoid the situations like Wilmer Flores being told he was traded mid-game, being in tears and then finding out he wasn’t traded.
I can still happen, on any day including the deadline day. They may have reduced the chances of it happening, but only just.
Or Yasiel Puig realizing he is immune to team discipline since he no longer is on the team
Speaking of Puig you guys should watch Cuba’s ransomed stars. Lays out how he got to MLB & the US.
Pretty insane story.
Maybe not a deadline deal but pretty sure a guy was traded during a break in a double header and switched dugouts some years ago.
Last season Seranthony Domínguez went from Baltimore to Toronto between game 1 and 2 of a double header (July 29, 2025)
According to The Athletic’s Jayson Stark, a move like Dominguez’s has only happened one other time in league history.
“OK, here’s the deal. We only know of one other player who can make that claim,” Stark said. “On May 30, 1922, Max (Killing Me Softly) Flack started for the Cubs in right field in Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Cardinals … and then started in right for the Cardinals in Game 2 (and even got a hit against the team he started the day with).”
I think there was a game that was suspended and a guy played for both teams after a trade later before the completion of the game.
Something quirky like that.
It was Danny Jansen. He was a Blue Jay and then went to the Red Sox.
Yeah, J. Stark on The Athletic chronicled it.
But I like hug watch.
No Hug-Watch has to be an MLBPA play, doesn’t it? The League would want as much of that “sentimentality” in front of us as possible, wouldn’t they?
“Hug watch” was the best part of the deadline….
Mid-game trades are the best trades
Unfortunately they stopped that a few years back by setting the deadline in the afternoon and only having night games on deadline day. Just another thing screwed up by Manfred. I still remember the day Austin Jackson got traded away from the Tigers and I was not a fan at all, just watching a random White Sox game on WGN. The emotional send off the crowd gave him mid-game was one of the memorable baseball moments I have ever seen. The Twitter posts thanking the fans just don’t hit the same.
Probably not for the players
Who cares. This is baseball so 90% of the action takes place on the final day. I actually think it should be July 1. Force teams to make up their damn mind.
Yes, make it a little later so the big market teams can rebuild their rosters & guarantee they make it.
August 3rd is weird
Yep, nearly the weirdest day of the year.
I wonder what happens if the pirates flop really bad and are in 5th place in the division by the deadline if they will take any calls on skenes
Not even for an entire farm system
Pirates take calls on anyone. Have taken multiple calls on Skenes. Had trade discussions on him. They didn’t get far. And obviously. Most teams don’t have the players to get Skenes. Those teams were the most interested ones. Need the players and the willingness. That’s just fair value. If the value is the same you don’t trade Skenes now. Fans obviously won’t like it. So it has to be so much surplus it compensates for the pr marketing. Every year that surplus will go down until 1 year remaining you are just looking for fair value or even best offer that is worth more than keeping him.
Any good GM is always listening, but I highly, highly doubt he’ll be traded at the deadline. Pirates are just starting to fill in the roster around him and look like they may be trying for a change. They won’t reverse course half a season in. If the Pirates somehow lose 100+, maybe next off season, but even then, I doubt it. Mid-27 or after 2027 is my guess.
Your Mariners have some players that could interest them. Emerson, Sloan, Anderson, etc.
It’s always a special time here in Pittsburgh, like the swallows returning to Capistrano
The air seems fresher. The water seems clearer
Alas, I wonder if this year will be different. Perhaps the Pirates will be buyers?
They were just buyers in 2024 no need to get greedy.
They changed it to my birthday, hoping to give me a gift. Hopefully the Pirates receiving instead of giving this season.
The trade deadline is my birthday and Christmas.
July 31st is a friday, so unless the Cubs are playing at Wrigley all 15 games should be night games, not sure why Manfred changed it other than because he could
The Cubs are hosting the Yankees on July 31, a day game.
But I like your theory about Manfred doing it just because he can. I’m sure his employers would be fine with that.
Even if you said this just to annoy the Dodgers-haters, I call it well-played.
RIP Hug-Watch. Wilmer Flores’ legacy is cemented.
Trade deadlines should be alot closer to the end of the season. This would allow mid-level teams, who believe they have a run in them, to hold off as long as possible. This would also allow contenders to fix issues (injuries or holes in the line-up) before the post season run. Make the trade deadline September 15th.
Except you might get only one or two starts out the starter you just traded for or 12 games out of the slugger you just acquired. At that point what is the point of having a deadline?.
I’d go differently and move the deadline up to the day after the All Star game. No one plays the next day and it would make a perfect circle cap off of the weekend that starts with the draft
Two points: First, teams do not have to play “beat the clock.” Lots of trades, big and small, occur well before the deadline. Second, in the not-very-old days, MLB had the second waiver trade deadline at the end of August. The added month didn’t result in a lot of trades because of the rules governing them, but some were blockbusters. MLB decided to do away with this process entirely.
And a third point: The largest factor impacting midseason trades isn’t the deadline date, it’s the expansion of the number of teams making the postseason. If the date was moved up a couple of weeks, this would only serve to make fewer players available in trade. If the owners were to make any change to the deadline, it would be to move it deeper into August to allow more trading to occur instead of less.
Multiple trade deadlines. I like the idea and you can make the deadline on the first day of the All-Star break. Then, from now until August 1st-August 3rd, that’s the second period where you can make trades. Then another from August 27th-August 28th.
IOW, the real deadline is Aug. 28 and the other two are effectively meaningless.
Right, but some clear contenders/clear sellers will make their trades earlier. You can get more time of the player, and sellers can cash in on their players more. August 27-28th are like last minute trades. August 1st and 3rd keeps the current deadline, the first one is the early bird, and the final one is the night owl.
Currently, the only blackout period for trading is from the beginning of August to end of the World Series (with a few exceptions, such as players who accepted a QO and recently signed free agents). So really the only change you are proposing is adding a pop-up window at the end of August. Which, would be interesting, though it’s difficult to imagine how it would play out. The value of rental trades would certainly be less by then.
I know.
Let the trade deadline run for the whole season up to the day prior to the there start of the wild card series playoffs. Then close the trade deadline till the next series. At the end of that series reopen the deadline till day prior the Divisional playoffs. Then reopened till the day before the start of the World Series.
The teams that don’t make the playoffs might be maybe able to squeeze more prospects talent from the playoff bound teams.
But what about for rentals?