Baseball Odds — Who Will Be Traded By The August 1 Deadline?
The Major League Baseball trade deadline is right around the corner–August 1 to be specific–and as is the case near the trade deadline every year in every sport there’s plenty of speculation about who will be traded and which teams will be ‘buying’ and ‘selling’. This year is no different and, in fact, it could be more intriguing than usual. There’s a number of teams that are conflicted about their prospects and don’t know whether to ‘buy’ or ‘sell’. There are other teams that are having trouble deciding whether to hold on to talented prospects that have been slow to ‘pan out’ or trade them while running the risk that they’ll reach their prime in another uniform.
WHICH MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS WILL BE TRADED BY AUGUST 1 DEADLINE?
Rules: Deals must be finalized by the August 1 deadline regardless of when they are announced.
CHRIS SALE -250: Sale has made it very clear that he doesn’t want to be in Chicago any longer. Only George Costanza on ‘Seinfeld’ put up a more obvious effort to get sent packing from the Yankees than Sale has of late. Most recently, he tore up a White Sox ‘throwback jersey’ he was supposed to wear in a game because it was ‘uncomfortable’. He got pulled from his start and a one game suspension. Sale has a 3.17 ERA this year, not as good as his career average of 2.95 but not bad. He’s a lefthander and at age 27 is in his prime. He’s also got three years left on his contract with team options that will pay him $38 million total. That’s actually a reasonable price for a guy you can build a rotation around.
CHRIS ARCHER -150: Archer hasn’t pitched as well as Sale this year nor has he torn up any uniforms. Other than that, there’s a lot of similarities. He’s under a four year deal with options that will average less than $10 million per. He’s 27 years old, in his prime and by all accounts a solid teammate. He’s shown flashes of dominance in the past and you have to think he’ll improve with a good team. His Tampa Bay Rays are lousy and need to hit the ‘reset’ button. They could get a lot of assets for Archer who could benefit greatly from a change of scenery.
JAY BRUCE +100: Cincinnati outfielder Jay Bruce has a year left on his contract and could help out a contender struggling to score runs. He currently leads the Majors in RBI and has hit 25+ home runs in 6 of his last 7 seasons. Has one year left on his contract and at age 29 could be a valuable player for a team going forward.
JEREMY HELLICKSON +100: Philadelphia is once again in ‘rebuilding mode’ and Hellickson has been in good form lately. Will almost certainly be moved before the deadline.
STEVE PIERCE +150: Tampa will almost certainly be ‘selling’ at the deadline and pending free agent Pierce would be a nice ‘rental’ for a team making a playoff run. Excellent hitter, particularly against lefthanders and although he’s a natural first baseman he has played second base, third base and left and right field during the past two seasons.
JONATHAN LUCROY +250: The Milwaukee Brewers’ catcher is a hard to find commodity in today’s Major League–a solid defensive presence behind the plate that can hit the ball. He’s got a year left on his deal and due to persistent trade rumors the Brewers seem inclined to part with him to help rebuild their moribund team.
ZACK COZART +300: The Reds’ shortstop is excellent defensively and is signed through 2017 at less than three million per season. Not sure why Cincy would want to part with him even if they *are* in ‘sell and rebuild mode’ but the word is that he’s on the block.
CARLOS BELTRAN +450: The future Hall of Famer is in the final year of his deal with the Yankees. At age 39 he’s a defensive liability but can still hit the ball and has 21 home runs and 62 RBIs to date. A switch hitter, would probably be a better fit in the AL where he could DH. The ‘X’ factor–do the Yankees consider themselves contenders after winning 7 of 10 and entering play on Friday only 6 games out of first place in the AL East? If they do, they’d probably want to keep Beltran.
CARLOS GONZALEZ +500: Colorado is another team hovering right around .500 but word is that they’ll be ‘selling’ regardless. Gonzalez is 31 and under contract at $20 million for 2017 but he is a viable power hitter.
RICH HILL +750: Excellent left handed pitcher that could get Oakland a much needed return on investment. He’s had blister issues all year that has limited him to 14 starts but he’s got a 2.25 ERA. If he can get his blister issues resolved could be a great pickup and become a top flight southpaw starter.