The traditional July 31 trade deadline may be no more under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, as outlined in the official release of the CBA today. As per the new rules, “The Office of the Commissioner shall have the flexibility to set the Major League Trade Deadline on a date between July 28th and August 3rd.”
This may not be as a major a change as it initially appears, given that it hasn’t been uncommon for the trade deadline date to be altered. Just this past July, in fact, the deadline was moved to July 30, whereas in 2016 the deadline was moved to August 1.
In both those situations, July 31 fell on a weekend day, when afternoon games were scheduled. While playing games on any deadline day throughout the week can lead to some awkward situations (i.e. a team suddenly having a shorthanded roster after dealing multiple players a few hours earlier), having the deadline on a weekend creates the possibility of even more chaos, with trades being consummated while actual games are taking place.
The new wrinkle to the CBA may simply formalize a process for deciding the deadline’s date. Notably, this coming July 31 is on a Sunday, so it seems likely that the deadline will be pushed ahead at least one day. Given the later start to the season, it seems plausible that August 3 might be this year’s deadline, just to give teams as much time as possible to plan. Looking ahead, this season is the only time during the 2022-26 campaigns (the length of the new CBA) that July 31 will fall on a Saturday or Sunday, so 2022 might well be the only time Commissioner Rob Manfred chooses to wield this particular bit of authority.
A lot makes sense in the new CBA. Worth waiting for after all, I suppose.
At Midnight no matter what day it is. August 31st,
Another new wrinkle in the new CBA that I haven’t really seen mentioned very much…starting next year, every team will play at least one series against all 29 other teams. To accommodate this, there will be fewer divisional games.
I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. Something to be said for the rivalry games, but it’ll be fun for the players, I’d think….being able to visit every other ballpark every season.
I think this is one positive from the new CBA.
They can do 12*4 intradivision games, 48 interleague with geographic rival getting an extra series, and 66 intraleague outside the division. That’s still twice the games versus division opponents compared to outside the division.
Downvote,that is way too many inter league games, half of that is more than sufficient.
It became increasingly unfair that teams in crappy divisions got an easier road to the wild card.
Voice- it is a good thing as 19 games against the same team is too many! It is also unfair to have 76 divisional games which is 47 percent of the season…completely illogical sense the wild card is based on the league and not the division.
Secondly, I currently live in San Diego, and the Red Sox, my team for 51 years, only play here once every 6 years. Playing every team means more fans can attend their teams road games, which is awesome.
I think it’s long over due. It evens out the schedule for one thing.
It’ll also be a lot more fun for fans. Especially for those that are fans of teams
that are in different states or leagues. Now you can go watch any team you want every 2 years instead of waiting for 6 or 7 years.
Father: While we all love the rivalry games, 17-19 intradivision games vs each other is overkill.
Imagine if they put all this time, effort, and thought into curing cancer.
Pretty sure they are, and more….
But no rule 5 draft.
Next winter meeting.
Not a big deal, really. We’re talking about a couple of days here. This isn’t newsworthy.
I like this less drama on July 31st. Spread it out a little bit. Give us 10 blockbuster deals instead of 3 or 4 in a 20 minute period
The date is changing.
The concept and and realities of a deadline is not.
Not sure why anything would spread out
Makes a lot of sense to have the International Draft deadline (7/25/22) ahead of the trade deadline.
With the waiver deadline being a thing of the past, I actually thought they’d move it to August 15 or something. Especially with more teams now in the playoff hunt.
Will they go back to allowing post-deadline waiver wire trades in August where the acquired player can be added to the post season roster or is that gone for good? If I remember correctly, the league did away with this in 2020 or 2021 which I did not like.
I wish they would have set it in the middle of August to give teams a little more time to evaluate their late season needs.
I do wonder how the expanded playoffs will affect the trade deadline. The more teams that feel they’re still in the hunt the less available teams willing to trade players away.