Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
For Friday’s column, I took the time to run down a long list of players who could be placed on irrevocable waivers and claimed prior to September 1, which is the deadline for them to be playoff eligible with their new teams.
The Rangers were the most intriguing of the teams I covered in that piece, for the obvious reason that they are the reigning World Series champs. Many of the players from last year’s club are still around, though some of them are currently injured, and even as Texas struggled this season, the organization and its fans held out hope a surge wasn’t far off. That said, the Rangers are simply running out of time. The trade deadline has passed and their playoff odds are below 2%. The reality of their situation has led me to ask the following question: Could the team that just won the World Series become the Angels less than a year later?
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
Last week, I explained how players can still change teams even as trades are no longer allowed. Now that we’re a week-plus into August, I’d like to run down the list of players who could be placed on irrevocable waivers before the month ends, which is the latest that a team can claim them and still have them be eligible for the playoffs. Players placed on waivers are first offered to the worst team in the league, then to the other clubs in ascending order all the way up to the one with the best record at the time of the waiver placement.
I’ll be focusing on teams with playoff odds below 5%, though contending teams teams could see if a rival wants to bite on an onerous contract. (Spoiler alert: they will not.) As a reminder, when a player is claimed off waivers, it’s a straight claim. The team that loses the player gets nothing more than salary relief, as the new team is responsible for the remainder of the contract. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
By now, you’re surely aware that the Marlins were busy, to say the least, ahead of last week’s trade deadline. Miami dealt 10 players — Jazz Chisholm Jr., Josh Bell, Bryan De La Cruz, Trevor Rogers, Tanner Scott, Bryan Hoeing, A.J. Puk, JT Chargois, Huascar Brazobán, and let’s not forget Luis Arraez, who was traded in early May — to teams looking to make the postseason, an admirable goal that the 2024 Marlins do not share. But that doesn’t mean the players who remain with Miami have nothing to play for the rest of the way. President of Baseball Operations Peter Bendix is in full evaluation mode, with spots aplenty up for grabs in 2025. That might even include manager Skip Schumaker, who is in his lame duck year and could decide to skip out of town for a job — wait for it — skippering a better team next season.
Since the Marlins are looking ahead to next season, we’ll do the same thing here today. Let’s take stock of the players currently vying for spots on next year’s Opening Day roster.
Position Players
Even before all the trades, the Marlins lineup was anemic, ranking second-worst by wRC+ from the beginning of the season through July 26, the day before Chisholm was traded to the Yankees.
With the team doing so poorly in the aggregate, it’s unsurprising that there have been few individual bright spots. Looking around the diamond, the only positions that look pretty locked in for next year are shortstop, one of the corner infield spots, and one of the corner outfield spots. Xavier Edwards, who has excelled at short since Miami released Tim Anderson at the end of June, is batting .383/.456/.470 (163 wRC+) to go along with 12 stolen bases for the season. Slugger Jake Burger rebounded from a horrid start to put up a 166 wRC+ in July. He’s continued that production so far in August, and he’s currently bouncing between DH, first, and third. Lastly, Jesús Sánchez’s raw power remains tantalizing, but he’s always hovered between 10 points (in either direction) of being league average by wRC+. Still, there’s no reason not to give him more run as long as he’s on the squad.
As for the other spots, well, there are plenty of contenders! The quality of the personnel is up for debate, but the quantity is indisputable. Here are all the position players auditioning for roles on the 2025 roster, either down the stretch or come spring training:
That doesn’t even include any future trade acquisitions or buy-low free agent signings the Marlins could make during the offseason. Either way, they’ll have plenty of position players to choose from next season.
Starting Pitchers
Assuming the Marlins don’t make any more trades between now and Opening Day, this is the most straightforward group. Sandy Alcantara will be about 16 months removed from his Tommy John surgery when the 2025 season begins, so he should be good to go. He’ll definitely be joined by Jesús Luzardo, with only a small handful of arms fighting for the final three rotation spots, which will become two spots once Eury Pérez returns from his own Tommy John surgery later in the year.
The four big names in contention are healthy hurlers Max Meyer and Edward Cabrera, as well as the currently injured Braxton Garrett and Ryan Weathers. Weathers is out with a finger strain that will certainly be cleared up by next season, but he only just began playing catch late last month, leaving his status for the rest of this season unclear. Garrett’s flexor strain is an even scarier injury, but he should be OK for 2025 if his arm doesn’t require any surgical intervention.
With Alcantara’s innings perhaps being managed coming off of surgery, it’s possible that the Marlins could go with a six-man rotation. If that’s what they decide to do, recent trade acquisitions Adam Mazur and Robby Snelling, as well as Darren McCaughan, likely would be the running for that sixth spot.
Relief Pitchers
As with any team, the bullpen is going to have the most players contending for spots on next year’s roster. If they are still members of the organization on Opening Day, Calvin Faucher, Anthony Bender, Andrew Nardi, and Declan Cronin will have their spots locked in, but considering all four were bandied about as trade options prior to the deadline, I’d be surprised if all of them started spring training as members of Marlins.
Beyond those four, there’s an absolute cavalry of arms currently on the big-league roster, out hurt, or down on the farm. A loser of the rotation battle could find himself in the bullpen as well, leaving perhaps dozens of pitchers competing for a precious few spots once the team adds to the roster via further non-roster invites, waiver claims, or, yes, trades. In looking for the next Scott — basically, a guy who is acquired for relatively little and then turns into a Dude — Bendix surely will cast a wide net.
In looking ahead to 2025, there are a couple of key caveats to keep in mind. As mentioned before, there will be other trades; several of the players I listed above will be on other teams come February. There will also, of course, be injuries, opening even more spots.
Lastly, there will be a lot of procedural moves removing players from contention for roster spots before the offseason even begins in earnest. The 60-day IL is not usable during the offseason, and the Marlins currently have seven players on it. That means that between now and the onset of the offseason, Miami will have to free up seven 40-man spots, and because the team has no pending free agents to clear space, the organization will have to designate seven players for assignment. Some of those players will clear waivers and be invited to spring training with a chance to earn their spots back, but there will also be some who get claimed by other clubs or are outrighted to the minors and then exercise their right to free agency — which is an option for outrighted players with three-plus years of service time, those who have been outrighted previously, or both. All of this is to say that for as much as the Marlins’ roster has changed from Opening Day to now, there will be even more roster turnover between now and the start of the 2025 season.
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
Don’t turn those Jeff Passan Twitter notifications off just yet, folks (I would say don’t ever do it, but I’m a known sicko): Transaction season is still here. I’d be shocked if we see anything as significant as when the Angels put about a quarter of their roster on waivers last August, but players changing teams is still possible for the balance of the season. Here’s how.
As a reminder, players must be on their new organization’s 40-man roster by the end of August to be eligible for postseason play. Transactions can still happen in September, but they’re generally moves of lesser impact for that reason. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
Well, that was fun! As trade season draws to a close — teams can only make straight-up waiver claims now — let’s take a step back and run down some of the most interesting roster implications of the deals made in the lead up to yesterday’s deadline.
We already know who was sent down as the corresponding move for some of these trades, but for others I’ll be walking through my best guess at what the cascading effects could be. It’s important to think about trades in that way. You’re not just getting Player A for Prospects X, Y, and Z. Player A is also replacing someone on your roster, shuffling playing time, bumping a hitter down or out of the lineup, sending a pitcher to the bullpen, etc. Making room on the 40-man roster also sends a player to the waiver wire who may be useful to other teams, with the worst teams getting first dibs.
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
With just four (!!!) days to go until the July 30 trade deadline, let’s round up some more news and developments from the last few days and discuss how these nuggets might affect what happens over the next 96-plus hours. Here’s the latest:
Miller Trade Could Be off the Table Following Injury
All-Star closer Mason Miller, the most tantalizing reliever on the market this deadline season, went down with an unfortunate injury this week, making it more likely that he’ll remain with the A’s for the rest of the year.
After pitching a 1-2-3 inning on Monday night, Miller fractured the fifth metacarpal in his left hand. According to A’s manager Mark Kotsay, Miller was getting treatment when “he was reminded that he had a postgame lift to get in. Out of a little bit of frustration, he just kind of pounded his fist down on a padded training table.” Miller was placed on the IL on Thursday, and there is no timeline for his return. While this is certainly better if he hurt his pitching hand, the injury surely depresses his trade value because he won’t be pitching for at least a few weeks. As a result, Oakland would be wise not to move trade this season; he is under club control through the 2029 season, and the A’s were going to move him only if they were blown away by the return package. Now that his trade value is down, the organization would be better off holding onto him and then shopping him around in the offseason, after his suitors have seen him come back healthy. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
With just seven days to go until the July 30 trade deadline, let’s round up some news and developments from the last few days and discuss how these nuggets might affect what happens over the next week. Here’s what’s new:
The Mariners Blow Their AL West Lead
Remember when the Mariners had a 10-game lead in the AL West at the end of play on June 18? Well, they surely do, and not fondly, now that it’s gone. They salvaged Sunday’s series finale against the Astros to avoid the sweep and enter the new week in a virtual tie for first, but it took just 24 games for them to blow that double-digit lead. That’s the quickest that any MLB team has ever lost a 10-game lead in its division standings.
Anyone who’s watched even a small handful of Mariners games can tell you that the offense has been the big issue for the team. Potentially making matters worse: Julio Rodríguez was removed from Sunday’s game after twisting his right ankle while leaping for a ball against the wall in center field. X-rays came back negative, and after undergoing an MRI on Monday, he’s listed as day-to-day with a mild ankle sprain. Then, in Monday’s 3-1 loss to the Angels, shortstop J.P. Crawfordfractured his right pinky finger when he was hit by a pitch in the first inning. It was announced after the game that Crawford will be placed on the IL; there is no timetable for his return. Meanwhile, the Mariners placed first baseman Ty France on waivers. Though he can continue to play while he’s on waivers, he was not in the lineup Monday, and after the game he was seen cleaning out his locker, an indication that even if he clears waivers, he is not returning to Seattle.
Also not helping this offense is its home ballpark: T-Mobile Park is the most pitcher-friendly park in the league. But even by park-adjusted stats, Seattle’s offense has been quite poor; only the Pirates have a worse wRC+ among the teams with a winning percentage of at least .500.
The Mariners are still clearly on the buying side of teams entering the deadline, but their playoff hopes largely rest on winning the division outright; entering Monday, our Depth Charts projects them to have a 49.8% chance to make the playoffs and 39.6% odds to win the AL West. Back on June 25, about a weak after Seattle’s high-water mark in the standings, I wrote about the team’s anemic offense and some of the players who could help improve the lineup if the Mariners were to acquire them in a trade. All of those hitters remain with their same clubs, and Seattle’s evaporated division lead should provide the team with even more incentive to add as many impact bats as possible. The Mariners should target players whose skill sets are more “T-Mobile Park proof,” but it’s hard to imagine this offense could be worse off with any of the possible upgrades that it may acquire over the next week.
James Paxton’s DFA Sets up Musical Chairs for the Dodgers
It was a little surprising to see James Paxton get designated for assignment as the Dodgers’ corresponding move to add top pitching prospect River Ryan to their roster ahead of his MLB debut on Monday, but the fact of the matter is that Paxton wasn’t going to last much longer in Los Angeles anyhow. While he’s tied with Tyler Glasnow for the team lead in starts (18), his outings were a mixed bag at best; he averaged under five innings per start and walked 12.3% of batters faced, by far a career worst.
The Paxton-for-Ryan swap is just the first of many rotation moves coming up for the Dodgers, who will welcome Glasnow back from the injured list on Wednesday and Kershaw on Thursday. The Dodgers will have to cut a reliever to make room for Kershaw, setting up a rotation with Glasnow, Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Landon Knack, and either Ryan or rookie lefty Justin Wrobleski. Alex Vesia is the only reliever who can be optioned, and he’s not going anywhere, so the team will have a tough DFA decision afoot. My guess is that Yohan Ramírez and Anthony Banda are the most vulnerable.
But that’s just the first round of musical chairs, with at least one of Walker Buehler (hip discomfort) and Bobby Miller (ineffective and banished to Triple-A) needing a spot at some point, which could leave Knack exposed to getting optioned despite his effectiveness when called upon. There’s also the trade deadline, at which point the Dodgers may well add yet another starter to the mix.
Banged-up Braves Bolstering Bats?
Max Fried and Ozzie Albies recently became the latest in a long line of Braves players to land on the injured list.
Dan Szymborski detailed the specifics of the injuries yesterday, but the upshot is this: Whit Merrifield (who, ironically, hurt his thumb taking grounders before his first game with the Braves and is currently day-to-day) and Nacho Alvarez Jr. probably aren’t enough to paper over the loss of Albies for two months, Atlanta’s strong rotation was already spread thin before Fried got hurt because Spencer Strider is out for the year and Chris Sale and Reynaldo López are often pitching on extra rest as Atlanta monitors their innings.
Fried’s injury is reportedly a best-case scenario, so maybe the Braves feel like they can get by for a month or so with guys like Dylan Dodd, Bryce Elder, AJ Smith-Shawver, and Allan Winans, but as Dan noted, losing Albies creates a not-insignificant hit to their Playoff Odds. It certainly doesn’t help matters that Matt Olson and Orlando Arcia have struggled mightily for most of the year.
Positional flexibility fits best for the Braves, who will have Michael Harris II (and almost certainly Albies) back for the playoffs. Better versions of Merrifield (guys who can slide between the infield and outfield) include Jazz Chisholm Jr., Luis Rengifo, and Amed Rosario.
The Tigers Hold the Keys
The Tigers are on a nice little run of late, but they’re a game under .500, which makes selling at the deadline all but a guarantee. The question is this, though: To what extent will they sell? Jack Flaherty is the best rental starter on the market by far, and fellow pending free agents Mark Canha and Gio Urshela should follow him out the door to make way for younger bats auditioning for roles next year. Andrew Chafin and Shelby Miller, who have club options for 2025, could be on the move as well if the Tigers don’t plan on having them around next season anyhow and want to avoid paying their buyouts. All those players, Flaherty especially, could return something of value, but none would alter the franchise even 10% as much as would a Tarik Skubal trade.
The Dodgers and Orioles are reportedly talking to the Tigers about Skubal, and while it would be shocking to see Detroit trade the best lefty starter in baseball when he has over two years left before he’s scheduled to reach free agency, it’s still worth considering the possibility. Skubal comes with as much club control as the White Sox’ Garrett Crochet, who is far likelier to be traded, and it stands to reason that Skubal would fetch a significantly better return than Crochet.
There’s not a right answer for what the Tigers should do with Skubal. Really, the only wrong answer would be getting an unworthy return package for him because they traded him for the sake of trading him. For this reason, the Tigers are most likely going to let suitors come to them with their best offers for Skubal, and they’ll trade him only if one of them is too good to turn down.
Editor’s Note, 9:37 a.m. ET: This story has been updated to include the latest information about the Mariners’ injuries and Ty France.
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
It’s amusing that we consider this morning the start of the second half of the Major League Baseball season, considering 1,449 games have been played, with only 981 left on the schedule. Yet, of course, we know why that’s the case: The All-Star break offers players and coaches a little breather and provides an easy dividing point in the action. Besides, “first uninterrupted segment of the season” is quite the mouthful.
So, anyway, now that the lopsided first half is over, I figured this would be a good time to take a high-level view of where things stand as we begin the second section of the season. Let’s run things down division by division, first covering the National League from East to West before doing the same for the American League. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
While “15 hits, 11 extra-base hits, six home runs, six walks and one stolen base in an eight-game span” is about as arbitrary and specific as a baseball feat gets, it’s nonetheless extremely impressive that Brenton Doyle finds himself in a group with five Hall of Famers.
Brenton Doyle is the sixth player to record at least 15 hits, 11 extra-base hits, six home runs, six walks and one stolen base in an eight-game span.
The other five are Larry Walker, Reggie Jackson, Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. pic.twitter.com/ZMGG6I6z1d
— Rockies Club Information (@RockiesClubInfo) July 10, 2024
Doyle proved useful last season as a rookie, but only on one side of the ball. His brilliant center field defense (19 DRS, 15 OAA) was almost completely undercut by his awful 43 wRC+, which limited his value to 0.5 WAR.
But some mechanical adjustments geared at increasing his swing efficiency and cutting down on its moving parts have worked wonders in his sophomore season. His wRC+ has climbed all the way up to an above-average 112, and he’s already popped 13 homers after hitting just 10 in 2023. Additionally, because he is getting on base more — his on-base percentage has jumped from .250 last year to .346 — he is swiping more bags, too. He ranks ninth in the majors with 20 steals, and he’s just two shy of his stolen base total from last year.
In Doyle, the Rockies have a potential all-around star; he’s 26th in WAR among all hitters and third among primary center fielders, after Aaron Judge and Jarren Duran. That’s encouraging for Colorado, and his breakout presents a few options for the organization, chief among them: Should the Rockies build around Doyle or use him as a trade chip?
The Rockies are well on their way to a sixth straight losing season, and their playoff odds have hit 0.0%, so they are clearly in a position to sell before the July 30 trade deadline. That said, if history has any indication on how Colorado will approach this year’s deadline, the organization won’t blow up the whole squad to embark on a complete rebuild. That means players on expiring contracts, such as catching tandem Elias Díaz and Jacob Stallings, and lefty reliever Jalen Beeks could all be wearing new uniforms come August, as could players with another year before free agency, like starting pitchers Cal Quantrill and Austin Gomber.
Otherwise, though, the Rockies are likely to stay the course with the guys under club control long term, such as Doyle. Sure, it might be prudent for them to get rid of anyone of value and start over, but that’s just not how they operate. Some of the most notable examples of this include Troy Tulowitzki’s bitter end in Colorado and the organization’s underwhelming return for Nolan Arenado when he essentially forced the team to trade him. (Gomber is the only player from that trade still on the Rockies’ 40-man roster.)
Then again, maybe the Rockies shouldn’t cut ties with their guys just yet, especially not young, affordable players like Doyle (pre-arbitration, under club control through 2029), shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, who before the season signed a very team-friendly extension (seven years, $63.5 million), and third baseman Ryan McMahon, who has three years and $44 million left on his contract after this year. You don’t have to squint too hard to see a world in which the Rockies build around this trio and find a way to contend while they’re on the roster for fairly cheap.
Think of it this way: Kris Bryant’s disastrous contract finally ends after the 2028 season, and long-term deals with pitchers Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela, and Germán Márquez all will have expired by then as well. Additionally, Colorado has some more talented youngsters coming up through the pipeline, among them are pitcher Chase Dollander, second baseman Adael Amador, and whichever player the team selects with the third overall pick in Sunday’s draft. The Rockies could have a solid core over the second half of this decade, especially when you consider that owner Dick Monfort is not opposed to spending money in free agency, though he doesn’t always (read: usually) spend wisely.
That’s not to say teams wouldn’t love to have Doyle if he were made available or if they could get into Monfort or GM Bill Schmidt’s ear with a huge offer, and Doyle could absolutely return players of intrigue and impact to join Colorado’s pipeline. I asked our Ben Clemens, whose Trade Value series will come out later this month, what he thinks of Doyle; while the center fielder won’t make the top 50, he’ll be included as an honorable mention, implying at least some value. That actually bodes well for the Rockies if they were interested in trading him; his value wouldn’t be too high that other teams would balk at Colorado’s asking price, but he’s also good enough that he’d net a decent return package. It would make a lot of sense for the Phillies or another contending club that needs a solid everyday center fielder to see if they can make a match without having to give up too much.
But would it really worth it for the Rockies to trade Doyle? I came into researching this piece thinking that the answer would be “yes, of course, because he’s a good player and they’re a bad team!” But I have now convinced myself otherwise. The prospects Colorado would get for Doyle would come with six years of club control, and Doyle himself has five. Even in a deal for multiple prospects, one extra year of control isn’t enough to trade away a player who has already reached the majors and had success there. It’s pretty risky to gamble that even one of the prospects in the return package would be as impactful on the field in the future as Doyle has been this season.
Another important thing to consider, Doyle’s all-around breakout has spanned just half a season. His lack of track record surely creates a disconnect in how teams currently value him. If the Rockies doubt their ability to contend while Doyle is on their roster, and therefore are willing to trade him, they might be better off holding on to him for another year or two so he can prove that his performance this season isn’t a fluke. It’s possible that he could regress between now and then, but as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the return Colorado would likely get for him this summer wouldn’t be all that valuable to the organization.
Whatever the Rockies decide to do with Doyle, he is going to be an important part of their future — even if he never again gets to enjoy the company of that same quintet of Hall of Famers.
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love.
The Austin Slater-for-Alex Young swap that the Giants and Reds made late Sunday night wasn’t going to grab many headlines. Slater is a platoon outfielder who’s struggled to mash lefties this year the way he had in the past, and Young is a funky, somewhat fungible lefty reliever; the Giants immediately sent him to Triple-A Sacramento upon completing the trade. That said, the notable thing about such a minor move is this: Because there are a bunch of teams trying to win, but few that have actually separated themselves from the pack, trades like this could rule the rest of the month.
Entering Monday, 11 of the 30 teams had playoff odds between 10% and 60%, bubble teams that could convince themselves to buy, sell, or do a little bit of both ahead of the July 30 deadline. That doesn’t even include the Reds, who may yet buy, as evidenced by their addition of Slater to add outfield depth. These teams almost certainly won’t go all in by the end of this month. Why risk trading away useful prospects only to miss out on postseason play anyway? Instead, the ones that decide not to punt on this season could elect to trade from positions of depth to patch up the holes in their roster.
The Giants could afford to move on from Slater because they have Luis Matos and Tyler Fitzgerald, two righty batters who are better defensive options than Slater in center field. Meanwhile, Slater should provide the Reds with much-needed outfield depth and allow them to option 25-year-old prospect Blake Dunn, who could benefit from getting regular playing time at Triple-A. On the flip side, Cincinnati could spare Young despite his strong Triple-A performance because it already had lefties Sam Moll, Brent Suter, and Justin Wilson in its bullpen. Conversely, San Francisco could use Young to share some of the load in the most-used bullpen in baseball.
On a larger scale, we may even see something analogous to the 2022 trade that sent Josh Hader from the Brewers to the Padres. Both teams were in a playoff position at the time of the deal, and the Brewers were actually in the better spot despite being the “seller” in the trade; they held a three-game lead in the NL Central when the trade went through. San Diego got a struggling Hader back on track and advanced to the NLCS, while Milwaukee missed the playoffs altogether. However, two years later, it’s become clear that the Brewers also improved because of the move. Robert Gasser, one of the two prospects they received in the trade, made his big league debut in May and was excellent across five starts before he went down with a season-ending elbow injury; he’s a key part of the Brewers’ future. The other prospect, outfielder Esteury Ruiz, ended up as Milwaukee’s most valuable return piece, even though he played just three games for the team. The offseason after acquiring Ruiz, the Brewers flipped him to the A’s in a three-team trade for All-Star catcher William Contreras, then with the Braves, and a solid reliever, Joel Payamps, from Oakland.
Trading major league players like Hader always contains the risk of upsetting the apple cart and messing with team chemistry, but if better fits come in return, that certainly can soften the blow of losing an All-Star. The Orioles’ surplus of position players naturally comes to mind, with Cedric Mullins, Colton Cowser, Heston Kjerstad, and Austin Hays all jockeying for playing time in the outfield, and Ramón Urías and Jorge Mateo blocking prospects Connor Norby and Jackson Holliday. Baltimore could choose to move any of these position players (excluding Holliday) considering it is in dire need of controllable starting pitching; Corbin Burnes is a pending free agent, and Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells are out of commission until at least the middle of next season.
Contenders with expendable pitchers are tougher to find, though the Mariners are the obvious exception. They have five solid starters and sorely need to upgrade their offense. It’s hard to imagine they would trade any of their top three guys (Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, and George Kirby), but Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo could and should be available for an impact bat. Seattle’s rotation depth beyond Miller and Woo is uninspiring, so if needed, president of baseball operations and master trader Jerry Dipoto could ask for a replacement fifth starter in the trade or swing a separate deal to get one. Perhaps the Mariners could swap strength for strength with the Orioles and also acquire lefty Cole Irvin in addition to a hitter.
More teams could use starting pitchers than the Mariners have to offer, though. Fortunately, fringier contenders like the Cubs, Mets, Blue Jays, and Rangers have a few possible trade pieces. Luis Severino, Jose Quintana, Yusei Kikuchi, Max Scherzer, Michael Lorenzen, and Andrew Heaney are all free agents after the year, and we might even see some non-rentals move, such as Jameson Taillon, Tylor Megill, Chris Bassitt, and Jon Gray. Giving up controllable starters likely would allow these teams to net a stronger return, and if they are worried about giving up starters who are under contract beyond this season, they could always replace them through free agency during the offseason.
That’s not to say teams won’t trade major leaguers for a package of prospects, because, as always, they certainly will do that! The White Sox and A’s, for example, won’t want major leaguers in return for anybody they trade. But teams who go right down to the wire in deciding whether to buy or sell almost definitely will try to contend again in 2025. For that reason, they probably won’t simply deal controllable players for anything other than controllable players who fit their roster a little bit better. And that sure could lead to some fun trades over the next three weeks, ones that are more impactful than swapping Slater for Young.
