For decades, MLB’s trade deadline was a fixed, steady point: 4 p.m. ET on July 31.
Yet last season brought a shift in both date and time. The 2022 deadline was Aug. 2 at 6 p.m. ET, the latest non-waiver-trade deadline in more than a century. But that change didn’t receive much attention. Much of the baseball schedule was shifted backward last year due to the lockout: Opening Day was pushed back by a week, and with the rest of the calendar squeezing to accommodate that change, it was easy to overlook the deadline move as a potential one-off.
Turns out, the shift is here to stay. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, MLB now has more flexibility in setting the date of the deadline and has pushed the time back by a few hours. That means this year’s trade deadline is Aug. 1 at 6 p.m. ET.
