What time is the 2017 MLB Trade Deadline?

The 2017 MLB Trade Deadline is creeping up on us. What time is the trade deadline and what does that entail for teams going forward this season?

With the calendar flipping to July, we are now officially in the second half of the 2017 MLB season. Technically, people view that after the Mid-Summer Classic down in South Beach in a few weeks, but July is about two things in baseball: the All-Star Game and the MLB Trade Deadline.

Both events have all 30 clubs heavily involved. Even if your favorite baseball team is absolutely rancid this year, yes, you will have at least one of your players taking part in the 2017 MLB All-Star Game down in Miami.

Whether your team is a contender or in the midst of a rebuild, all parties can get excited for the upcoming trade deadline. Typically, most teams prefer to be buyers as opposed to sellers at the deadline, feeling that if they have even a snowball’s chance of making the postseason, they’ll go for it. So when is the 2017 MLB Trade Deadline and what time must all trades stop?

This year’s trade deadline will be at 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 31. The reason for this mid-day cutoff time is to prevent players from getting pulled from games during the nightly slate on the last day of July. This date also represents roughly two months of ball that a new team member can play out the rest of the season with his new club.

Can teams still make trades after the deadline? Yes, they can, but a player must first clear waivers. Because of this, marquee players are almost never traded after the non-waiver deadline because it’s essentially a free-for-all in exchanging players through the waiver wire.

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In short, if your team can win close to 90 games, do your homework on the stud players from bad teams across the league. If it’s more of a 90-loss year for your club, start reading up on the top prospects that are stuck in the minors because they play for an elite baseball organization.