Among the changes MLB introduced for the 2019 season was the elimination of August waiver trades and therefore having July 31 serve as a firm deadline. Player movement still remains possible, though primarily on Minor League deals and with those not on a 40-man roster.
Despite the single trade deadline, there wasn’t much activity to speak of in the time leading up to July 31. However, deadline day saw a flurry of record-setting transactions. A total of
77 players were traded in 30 separate deals, both of which set MLB records.
The Houston Astros made the biggest splash by acquiring Zack Greinke from the Arizona Diamondbacks, while the Los Angeles Dodgers further bolstered their depth with the additions of Jedd Gyorko and Adam Kolarek.
Another major deal was the surprising trade of Marcus Stroman from the Toronto Blue Jays to the New York Mets, which complete before the final 24 hours leading up to the deadline.
In many other cases, contenders looking to buy and selling bottom-dwellers had to agree on acceptable prices for trades, creating stalemates in reported discussions across the league.
This year’s trade market prompted some MLB general managers to seek the trade deadline pushed into the middle of August, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today:
There is a growing sentiment among GMs to push the #MLB trade deadline back to Aug. 15 to give teams more time to determine whether they are buyers or sellers in light of slow activity. They will discuss at the GM meetings in November in Phoenix.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 29, 2019
The non-waiver trade deadline has taken place on July 31 each year since 1986. However, until this season, general managers had the cushion of the waiver trading period in August to get any future deals done in a slightly more complicated manner if need be.
GMs could put a player on waivers and either be allowed to trade that player to any team once they cleared those waivers or trade with the team that claimed that player. Since that waiver system is now eliminated, teams have very few ways to improve their rosters from outside their respective organizations for the rest of the season.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman deemed this year’s deadline the most peculiar he has ever seen.
MLB has several issues brewing regarding the relationships between players and teams, and now it may have another with the altered deadline.