Philly Front Office

“What day is the…”

I gently press my index finger to your lips and say, “…MLB Rule 5 Draft? Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

Below are all the upcoming dates that you, Avid Sports Fan, need to know over the next year. Some dates are estimates since leagues don’t think it’s necessary to plan ahead. They, unlike me, are inconsiderate.

• NFL
• MLB
• NBA
• NHL

June 30, 2025 – NBA Free Agency Begins: Starting at 6pm, teams can start officially negotiating with players. Deals for hundreds of millions of dollars will be agreed to in seconds, but they won’t dare actually sign these deals until July 6 for some reason.

July 5-20, 2025 – NBA Summer League: NBA prospects get to play basketball for the first time since the last time they played basketball. The difference is that this time it will also be with other players who will not be on their team come October. Starts in San Francisco and Utah at first then descending upon Las Vegas on July 10.

July 12, 2025 – MLB Futures Game: Held in Atlanta, GA

July 13-14, 2026 – MLB Draft: Held in Atlanta, GA

July 14-16, 2025 – MLB All-Star Festivities: Held in Atlanta, GA where Kyle Schwarber cleans up the Mets mess

July 15, 2025 – NFL Franchise Deadline Day: Deadline for players to agree to extensions if they have been given franchise designations

July 22, 2025 – Eagles report to Training Camp: And the World Champions begin their title defense

July 23, 2025 to August 31, 2025 – Eagles Training Camp:

July 27, 2025 – MLB Hall of Fame Inductions: Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Dave Parker, and Dick Allen will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. CC Sabathia will be inducted by Shane Victorino who hit a grand slam off of him in the playoffs against the Phillies. Dick Allen leads two Philly HOF inductions this calendar year.

July 28, 2025 – MLB Draft Signing Day: Deadline for all MLB Draftees with college eligibility remaining to sign contracts with their drafting teams. Players that have exhausted their eligibility have until 1 week before next year’s draft.

July 31, 2025 – MLB Trade Deadline: Teams can make trades until 6pm EST. I f Dave Dombrowski doesn’t do anything, this website will be unofficially shutdown because I will be numb with anger for several months.

July 31, 2025 – Hall of Fame Game: Canton, Ohio – Chargers v. Lions, where we will finally see who would win in a fight, a lion or a lightning bolt

August 2, 2025 – NFL Hall of Fame Inductions: Antonio Gates, Sterling Sharpe, Jared Allen, and Eric Allen will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. Hall of Fame inductions are only important if Philadelphians are inducted and even better when we have an axe to grind. Eric Allen should have been a long time ago.

August 5, 2025 – Shemar Stewart Day: After this date, unsigned rookies cannot be traded to other teams until Draft Day 2026. Shemar Stewart of the Bengals and the Cleveland 2nd rounder who was arrested are the only 2 left.

August 7, 2025 – Eagles Preseason Opener: Preseason begins against the Cincinatti Bengals. This is the equivalent of trying to catch a few drops of rain in the desert, but we will take it.

August 26, 2025 – NFL Roster Cutdown Day: All NFL rosters must be trimmed to 53 players.

August 31, 2025 – MLB Post-Season Eligibility Deadline: Only players already in an organization by this date are eligible for the playoff roster. There are no more 2nd deadline trades, but teams will place their big contracts on waivers in hopes that someone will relieve their financial burden in one last gasp to improve their team.

September 1, 2025 – MLB Roster Expansion: Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 players. It used to be 40!

September 5-6, 2025 – Basketball Hall of Fame Inductions: Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles make the Hall in Springfield Mass.

September 28, 2025 – Last Day of MLB Season: All games start at approximately 3:05p EST

October 2025 – MLB Playoffs: Tentative.

October 2 and 4, 2025 – NBA Abu Dhabi Games: The Sixers play the Knicks for two preseason games in Abu Dhabi for some reason. Wonderful!

October 7, 2025 – NHL Opening Night: Flyers don’t play until October 9, against the Panthers

October 21, 2025 – NBA Opening Night: The NBA regular season begins. Yippy.

November 2025 – MLB Qualifying Offers: Qualifying offers must be issued within 5 days of the last game of the World Series. MLB does not F around with its business decisions…despite nobody doing anything until the winter meetings which are always held in the fall.

November 3, 2025 – College Basketball Season Begins: It’s all about the NBA Draft for our purposes, but College Basketball is awesome.

November 4, 2025 – NFL Trade Deadline: Teams cannot make trades after 4pm EST. This is the least fun trade deadline of the year.

November 10, 2025 – NHL Hall of Fame Induction: Former NHL players Zdeno Chara, Duncan Keith, Alexander Mogilny, and Joe Thornton will be inducted in Toronto, CA. No Flyers? GTFOH

November 11, 2025 – NFL Franchise/Transition Tag Deadline: any unsigned players are no longer eligible to play in 2026 season. Looking at you Shemar Stewart.

December 7-10, 2026 – MLB Winter Meetings: Teams gather in Orlando, FL. Nothing says Winter Meetings like Fall in Florida.

December 7, 2025 – MLB Hall of Fame Announcement: MLB announces Hall of Fame Class of 2026. Chase Utley inches closer to induction.

December 10, 2025 – MLB Rule 5 Draft: Players left unprotected on the 40-man roster can be selected by other teams but must remain on the 26-man roster all season or be returned. This is maybe the most sicko baseball fan event of the year.

December 15, 2025 – MLB International Signing Period Ends: Period Lasts from January 15 to December 15 at 5p. No one is beating the buzzer because all deals are agreed to when players are in 6th grade for the most part.

December 16, 2025 – NBA Emirates Cup Championship: From Las Vegas, NV. No one cares. Unless the Sixers are in it. Then it becomes the single most important championship on the calendar.

January 2, 2026 – NHL Winter Classic: Rangers at Florida Panthers in Loan Depot Arena in Miami, FL (head explodes). It is very cute that these baseball loving, college football junkies pretend to care about hockey because a team in Ft. Lauderdale won the championship.

January 5, 2026 – NFL Preliminary Signing Date: Teams can begin signing free agents for 2026 as long as they are not currently under contract with NFL teams. Also, teams can begin extending 2023 rookies including Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith. Jerry Jones is wholly unfamiliar with this date.

January 14, 2026 – NFL Draft Entry Deadline 1: Deadline for draft eligible underclassmen not playing in the National Championship to declare for the draft

January 15, 2026 – MLB International Signing Period Begins: International free agents can be signed to contracts from now until December 15, 2026. This may be a funnier deadline than NBA and NFL free agency. These 16 year olds have been unofficially under contract for years at this point.

January 23, 2026 – NFL Draft Entry Deadline 2: Deadline for draft eligible underclassmen playing in the National Championship to declare for the draft

January 25, 2026 – NFL Championship Sunday: AFC and NFC Championships set for 3pm and 630pm

February 5-22, 2026 – Winter Olympics: No All-Star game for the NHL as they will be playing for their countries in Milan, Italy. Thankfully Russia is still not allowed to compete, so I won’t have any conflicting interest courtesy of Matvei Michkov

February 8, 2026 – Super Bowl LX: Santa Clara, CA. Why the hell would the Super Bowl be played on this likely mess of a field?

February 13-15, 2026 – NBA All-Star Weekend: In LA, not Philadelphia despite the semiquincentennial!

February ?, 2026 – MLB Spring Training: Pitchers and Catchers report on? Rob, can I call you Rob? I need to know the dates for Pitchers and Catchers like years in advance. Just make it February 15 every year please. Make it a national holiday. You are bootlicking Agent Orange enough, ask for that at least.

February 17, 2026 to March 3, 2026 – NFL Franchise Tags: All franchise and transition tag designations must be made by teams between these dates.

February 23 to March 2 – NFL Scouting Combine: From Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN. Ah yes, the Combine. Where a bunch of 22 year old supermen in tights run, jump, prance, and mince for our entertainment and to be measured like livestock. It is really weird when you think about it.

March ?, 2026 – NHL Trade Deadline: Unfortunately, the Flyers are already out of contention.

March 9-11, 2026 – NFL Legal Tampering Period: Teams can contact player agents and agree to free agent deals, but no contracts can be signed until after 4pm on March 11

March 11, 2026 – Start of NFL League Year: All teams must be salary cap compliant by 4pm EST. In a yearly tradition, the Saints must cut half their roster to become cap compliant.

March ?, 2026 – MLB Opening Day – Every year I feel like Andy Dufresne reaching up to the sky in the rain now that Spring Training is over…then, in an alternate ending, I am recaptured by the unforgiving Phillies who make my life hell for 6 months.

March 29, 2026 to April 1, 2026 – NFL League Meetings: The next opportunity for pansies around the league to try to legislate away the Tush Push.

April 17, 2026 – NFL RFA Deadline: Last day for restricted free agents to sign offer sheets with new teams

April 17, 2026 – End of NHL Regular Season

April – June 2026 – NHL Playoffs: Please give me something to look forward to Flyers

April – June 2026 – NBA Playoffs: The Sixers have been eliminated.

April 23 – 25, 2026 – NFL Draft: Being held in Pittsburgh, PA

May ?, 2026 – NHL Draft Lottery: HERE WE GO!!!

May ?, 2026 – NBA Draft Lottery: Oh, that’s right, the Sixers don’t have any picks.

June ? to ?, 2026 – NBA Draft:

June ? to ?, 2026 – NHL Draft:

June 30, 2026 – NBA Free Agency Begins: Tentative

July 2026 – MLB All-Star Festivities: In Philadelphia, not LA, because of the semiquincentennial!