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Aug 12, 2023

MLB Power Rankings: Cubs, Angels throw wrenches into baseball's trade deadline with hot streaks

Though we've already seen some big names move, the trade deadline this season looks to be slower than in many past years. Myriad circumstances have come together to conspire against a huge trade

Though we've already seen some big names move, the trade deadline this season looks to be slower than in many past years. Myriad circumstances have come together to conspire against a huge trade deadline, such as a few bad teams not having many players that make sense as trade candidates. There are also a lot more teams in position to buy than sell and that group includes a few Trade Deadline Saboteurs. That is, teams that looked a few weeks ago like they'd be sellers but for various reasons are not likely to join the fray.

Let's highlight three of them.

Shohei Ohtani trade rumors were seemingly driving the sport for a few weeks. The best player in baseball potentially being available always makes for a huge headline leading up to the trade deadline, but there's the added attachment that if the Angels were going to trade Ohtani, they'd have likely sold nearly every veteran on the roster (maybe even including Mike Trout?).

Instead, the Angels have won nine of their last 12 games, announced they were holding Ohtani and have even been buyers (adding Lucas Giolito). The Ohtani rumors were hanging over the trade market for a few weeks and once they went away, things just felt a lot less exciting. This is an addition to a possible seller becoming a buyer, of course.

The Cubs lost on Sunday, but they had won nine straight before that. Having won 11 of 13, they sit a game over .500 which is only four games out in the NL Central and three back of a wild-card spot. They've played their way off the sellers list -- removing at least Marcus Stroman and Cody Bellinger from the market -- and are looking to add bullpen help.

From Friday, April 28 through Thursday, June 8, the Cubs went 12-26. Otherwise, they've been a pretty damn good team this season. They are the only NL Central team with a positive run differential and though I've maintained it's misleading for a while, there's an argument to be made that they are better than their record and if they do get bullpen help, they've got a shot to make a run.

Still, before this recent run, they were definitely going to be sellers and flipping categories late alters the market.

The Padres have been a self-saboteur this season, so it's only fitting they've thrown a wrench into the trade deadline by hanging just close enough to justify staying pat. If they do decide to sell, we could remove them from this list and we'd see an influx of talent on the market, such as lefty starter Blake Snell, elite closer Josh Hader and superstar Juan Soto. My hunch is that sweep of the first-place Rangers kept them close enough that A.J. Preller will hope his players can save his job down the stretch by getting scorching hot and sneaking into the playoffs.

If the Padres aren't going to sell, shouldn't they be buying in desperate hope of salvaging the season? And if that's the case, again, we have a would-be seller instead looking to change columns on our virtual notepads, overloading the "buyer" column with, what, 21 of the 30 teams?

As noted, more circumstances surround our relatively slow deadline, but these three culprits are a big part of the equation.