When Baseball moved to a single trade deadline on July 31 this year, the whole idea was to make teams be more aggressive at the deadline instead of waiting until August and making a bunch of waiver moves. Basically they were telling them that they have to decide whether or not they think they're in it by then instead of waiting until mid-August to sell of their tradeable assets, which is how the Astros were able to get Justin Verlander two years ago.
David Cone went off about this during the Yankee game tonight. Basically, he doesn't like it. He doesn't mind the single trade deadline. He'd just prefer if it was sometime in August. Especially since August 31 is still the deadline for players to be eligible for the postseason roster.
To an extent, I get his point. Say there's an injury. Instead of making a trade for a veteran, they might have to rely on someone from the Minors coming up and hoping they can do the job. Depending on the position, some teams have the depth to handle that. Others don't.
The Yankees offer a practical example of exactly what he was talking about. Brian Cashman, of course, got crushed by the media after not doing anything of significance at the deadline (and, seeing as the Yankees haven't lost since the trade deadline, Cashman's clearly smarter than the rest of us). But anyway, when Luke Voit got hurt, Cashman felt comfortable with Edwin Encarnacion and DJ LeMahieu at first base. Then Encarnacion had his wrist broken by the Red Sox two days later! LeMahieu and Mike Ford are obviously doing the job just fine, but if both Voit and Encarnacion are both out for the year, you can bet Cashman would've loved having the option of making a waiver trade.
Then there's the Cubs. Willson Contreras went on the injured list a few weeks ago, so they traded for Martin Maldonado from Kansas City to catch while he was out. With Contreras back, they felt no need to carry three catchers, so they traded Maldonado to Houston...only to see Contreras go right back on the IL! Except it was after July 31, so the Cubs couldn't trade for a replacement this time.
Catchers are especially tough to replace when the starter goes down. Then you throw in the fact you can't make a trade, and the veteran replacement options become even fewer. Enter Jonathan Lucroy, the former Brewers and Rangers All-Star who was recently released by the Angels. The Cubs promptly signed him and threw him right into the tightest division race in Baseball.
That, I think, is the biggest point of confusion about the single, earlier deadline. You're still allowed to make moves in August, and those players will still be eligible for the postseason. The only difference is that the team whose player is claimed off waivers doesn't get anything in return. So, instead of making a trade, the claimant simply just waits to sign him after he's officially released.
We've already seen a bunch of players move in the first few days of August. In addition to signing Lucroy, the Cubs released reliever Brad Brach, who promptly signed with the suddenly surging Mets. Greg Holland was just DFA'd by the Diamondbacks. You can bet he'll end up somewhere else fairly soon. Same thing with now-former Giant Joe Panik. If I'm a team like Atlanta or Washington, I wouldn't mind having that left-handed bat off the bench.
So, as you can see, just because teams can no longer make trades in August, we're still going to see a bunch of players on the move. What I'm curious to see, though, is how much movement there will actually be in August. That was part of the point, too. There was little to no action in July because teams knew they could still trade for pretty much anyone they wanted (as long as he cleared waivers) in August.
And teams are still free to put players on waivers. Except now they can't "pull him back" if they can't agree on a trade with the claiming team. Revokeable trade waivers are a thing of the past. Now, if you put a guy on waivers and somebody else claims him, you have to give him up. Which basically means we're going to see fewer players put on waivers. But, guys are always going to be DFA'd, and when that happens, they just become regular free agents that each of the 29 other teams are free to sign...just like any other time of the year!
Which means we're still going to see plenty of player movement between now and the end of the month. The question is how many of them will actually be impact guys? Although, I'd imagine the teams that fall out of it will still look to dump some salary and make their players available. Probably just not as many.
Will we see Verlander-to-Houston again? No. But teams still have plenty of opportunity to improve themselves in August. This just happens to be the first season with these new rules, so it's a whole new world. And just like everything else, they'll figure it out soon enough!
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