While baseball’s rumor mill is heating up, the San Diego Padres stand as the only non-contenders who have accepted their fate and are officially open for business. That should—and will—change in the not-so-distant future, as it makes no sense for teams on the outside of the playoff picture to drag their feet much longer.
After all, the longer these teams wait to deal, the greater the risk of an injury befalling one of their biggest trade chips and destroying their value in the process. It’s an unnecessary risk to take and one of the reasons that much of this week’s chatter revolves around the Oakland A’s, a team that has been bit hard by the injury bug this season.
Keep in mind that these proposed deals are only ideas and pure speculation. Unless otherwise noted, there’s no indication that any of them have actually been discussed.