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.
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.
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.
Yes! Agreed
For a minute I thought they were talking about a CBA lockout.
Headline was super confusing?
I would think trading a guy mid-game, mid-inning, home game, allowing him to trot off the field, acknowledging the fans and get a proper send off. I think that would be a pretty cool thing.
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.
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.
So now I have to wait a few extra days to see Skubal in Dodger blue….
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.
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?