Ah, the trade deadline.
It’s that time of year where fans obsessively refresh Twitter and the careers of many baseball players and executives hang in the balance.
Due to the addition of the second wild card to postseason play, the amount of teams willing to trade off notable pieces has declined. With more teams in the hunt to play in October, there are fewer impact players available on the market that buyers can go after.
That makes this trade deadline rather intriguing in two ways: 1) The teams that are clear sellers know the advantage they have in possessing pieces to deal with a big bounty headed back in return, and 2) there are many more teams interested in acquiring assets to fuel playoff runs.
With limited resources available on the market and increased competition, the trade deadline could be boom or bust. The two highest sellers are big-market teams that don’t need to make moves just for the sake of making a move, while buyers could blanch at high prices, which would freeze the trade market. On the flip side, sellers could have no trouble finding a trade package they like out of the varied options available to them.
Here are the five teams most likely to be aggressive heading into July 31, trade deadline day.