We have entered late July, the time in the baseball calendar when sellers become buyers and buyers become fakers. The Trade Deadline will conclude on Tuesday, July 30, at 6pm, and will sure to be chock full of exciting transactions, some of which have already been completed. Here are five storylines heading into this fabulous MLB weekend.
Randy goes West
The Rays have traded Randy Arozarena, who is second all-time in playoff slugging percentage to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, to the Seattle Mariners for OF Aidan Smith, RHP Brody Hopkins, and a player to be named later. The deal has graded out by experts to be a win for Seattle, who enters the last third of the season with a banged-up lineup (Julio Rodriguez and J.P. Crawford are currently injured) and a division lead to retake from the Astros. Randy has had a down year, but his bat is sure to inject some jolt into an otherwise mediocre M’s order. After all, it would be a shame to see such a great pitching staff go to waste.
Witt is the new Junior
I’m not sure how long this has been a thing, but amidst Bobby Witt Jr.’s cycle fight against the Diamondbacks a few games ago, I heard the Royals announcers call him “Junior”, a moniker that I previously thought was strictly reserved for Mariners legend Ken Griffey “Junior”. But maybe the changing of the guard is appropriate. Witt has etched his name into the 2024 AL MVP conversation with Aaron Judge, Gunnar Henderson, and Juan Soto after starting the second half 12-for-15 at the plate. He’s going to be in KC for a while after signing a massive contract extension before this season. Is it time we start referring to him like the star he is?
The pennant-winners are buying
Speaking of the D-Backs, they just completed the first big trade of the Deadline season by acquiring A.J. Puk from the Marlins to help out with their bullpen. It’s also been reported that the Texas Rangers will try to ride their recent winning ways into the rest of the season by buying at the Trade Deadline. This season has been rather quiet for the two 2023 pennant-winners, but crowded Wild Card races in both the AL and NL have created buying opportunities for Arizona and Texas. I liked both of them to repeat as playoff teams coming into the year, so these buying decisions don’t shock me.
The Braves are going to make me eat my own words, aren’t they?
A marred Braves roster has lowered them to only a half-game up on the Mets for the first NL Wild Card spot, A.K.A the fourth seed. Meanwhile, the Phillies own the best division lead in baseball, heading the NL East over Atlanta by nine-and-a-half games. Not only does it look like the Braves won’t win the division for the first time since 2018, but they’re also in danger of dropping out of the playoff race altogether. If there’s one team that should buy over any other at the Deadline this year, it’s the Braves.
The Olympics start today!
I’m not a huge proponent of baseball being an Olympic sport and allowing players to participate via a two-week break in the middle of the season (we have the WBC for a reason), but I do love the Olympics. Every four years, we get extremely invested in sporting events that we otherwise would never watch. It’s a beautiful phenomenon. If you’re not watching synchronized diving tomorrow, I don’t know if we can be friends.
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