Behind The Scenes

Track the latest trade deadline news on Baseball Tonight, SportsCenter

Depending on whom you ask, MLB’s non-waiver trade deadline day is either one of the most exciting or one of the most chaotic days on the baseball calendar.

If you ask ESPN MLB Insider Jayson Stark — a key contributor to ESPN’s trade deadline coverage — he sums it up like this:

“For me, it is nonstop texting, emailing, phoning, writing, tweeting, blogging, columnizing and reporting. Sounds like a pretty relaxing day, doesn’t it?”

Jayson Stark

ESPN’s extensive deadline coverage on Tuesday includes a 90-minute SportsCenter Special, dubbed “Baseball Trade Deadline” at 3 p.m. ET, three editions of Baseball Tonight and hourly SportsCenter coverage throughout the day. The MLB trade deadline is at 4 p.m.

Stark will join ESPN MLB commentators John Kruk, Karl Ravech, Buster Olney, Tim Kurkjian, Pedro Gomez who will collaborate to tell the deadline day story.

The trade deadline marks the last time during the 162-game regular season when Major League Baseball teams can make trades freely without players having to clear waivers. (Waiver deadline is August 31).

Sunday Night Baseball’s Orel Hershiser said: “The trade deadline is exciting for fans because you either have teams looking to improve their club for the playoff race, or you have disappointed teams waving the white flag and making moves to prepare for next year.”

With so many teams jockeying for playoff position, there’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle. It’s Stark’s job to try and put the puzzle pieces together.

His deadline day schedule includes in-studio appearances on Mike & Mike in the Morning at 8:30 a.m., SportsCenter appearances at 9 a.m. and 12 p.m., and then the big SportsCenter Special at 3 p.m.

He also writes his annual trade deadline Winners and Losers column for ESPN.com in addition to a flurry of additional media interviews and radio appearances.

For ESPN’s full MLB trade deadline coverage, visit ESPN Media Zone.

Back to top button