In years past, the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline always brought about a flurry of activity on the trade market, but it was a misnomer.
Through revocable trade waivers, contenders still had another month to add pieces for their stretch run, while teams on the fence between buying and selling had additional time to choose their path.
Not this year.
Offseason rule changes eliminated the August waiver trade window and effectively made the July 31 deadline a hard cap on MLB trades.
However, there are still ways for a contender to bring aboard more talent once the calendar flips to August in the form of in-house moves and outside additions.