If we had to describe the 2019 trade deadline with the title of a Jimi Hendrix song, it would be "Manic Depression." Of course, the words are reversed because at first deadline day was depressing, and then it was manic.
For the most part, the teams that were active up to the 4 p.m. ET final bell on Wednesday were active late, at least in terms of pulling the trigger. It was like a leaky pipe that had been trickling for days before suddenly bursting. The baseball branches of the social media echo chamber blew up like the old scoreboard at Comiskey Park. But the frenzy didn't extend to every locale -- or even very many of them -- and some notable teams were left to defend the status quo.
My prediction is that the trade deadline will never unfold in quite the same fashion again. There was precious little in terms of deadline-jumping moves in the weeks leading up to the final day. Teams were waiting to see some separation in the standings so that the markets for both the buyers and the sellers could be clarified. But the characteristics of those markets have changed.
