At Just Baseball, this means tasking our great staff to come up with 30 trade deadline guides on all 30 MLB teams, as we always aim to put ourselves in the mind of front offices and the thought process they must be going through during this pivotal time.
Teams who are clearly World Series contenders have to put that finishing touch on their roster, while teams in the Wild Card hunt look to move some pieces around to make a final playoff push.
Then you have teams out of the race completely, who need to decide what they have to sell, and what they need to build around in the future. For a breakdown on who’s buying, selling and caught in-between, click on the links to our team deadline guides below!
As Jayson Stark notes in his in-depth look at this year’s festivities, Rolen’s “yes” votes accounted for just 10.2 percent of the ballots that first year, climbing each winter until he crossed the magic number of 75 percent.
For McGriff, the wait was even longer. In 10 years on the ballot (the maximum number allowed — even nostalgia has its limits), he never passed the threshold for induction or made it past 40 percent. As Stark notes, that had more to do with the era in which he played than anything else. He was inducted by the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee (the same committee, incidentally, that did not include Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Rafael Palmeiro).
While team executives report trade conversations are increasing, the market lacks definition. Some clubs likely will wait until the weekend to determine their course, with the deadline looming a week from Tuesday.
Coming out of the All-Star break, I wrote about six teams on the bubble. As I’ve mentioned, the buy/sell decision is not always either/or, and several teams likely will do both at once. Still, the Mets probably are more sell than buy at this point, the Red Sox and Padres more buy than sell.
Nine days remain until the Aug. 1 trade deadline, and there is still a lot of uncertainty as to whether Ohtani, the Angels’ transformative two-way star, will be dealt before then. Front-office sources throughout the industry said things were quiet on the trade front over the weekend, and many of them have a hard time believing Angels owner Arte Moreno will trade Ohtani in the first place — especially since the team has found a way to remain in contention without Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon.
But the Angels have not publicly declared that Ohtani will stay, so teams throughout the sport are preparing for the possibility that he can be had. They have to be ready to act; acquiring a player of that magnitude takes a lot of legwork.
Will the Padres be adding or dealing? It might be hard to believe, given his nature, that San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller won’t be aggressive one way or another, either selling off veteran players or acquiring them. As of now, though, the expectation is that starter Blake Snell and closer Josh Hader will remain with the team, according to a person familiar with the team’s thinking.
If available, Snell would probably be the best starting pitcher available, and Hader would probably be the best relief pitcher available. Both are free agents at season’s end, and if the Padres don’t believe they can truly contend in 2023, they could use both to get younger, cheaper players that balance out both the roster and the payroll, better positioning the club for 2024.
At the moment, though, the Padres don’t seem ready to punt on 2023. But a lot can change this week during their six-game homestand against the Pirates and Rangers. A lack of significant traction could prompt Preller to pivot in the other direction. And if he does, perhaps superstar outfielder Juan Soto, a free agent after 2024, will be available, too. If there’s one thing Preller has proved in his Padres tenure, it’s that he doesn’t take half-measures.
White Sox dealing pitchers: Lucas Giolito will be moved as he has no chance of re-signing in Chicago. He’d be a good addition for the pitching-needy Cincinnati Reds. There has been no indication Dylan Cease will get traded — not with two years remaining of team control and few good Chicago White Sox starters under contract after this season. If Joe Kelly is healthy, he and Kendall Graveman are options for any of the contenders. Tim Anderson’s future in Chicago is also murky.
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