How will Trade Deadline go down? All-Stars give their takes

PHILADELPHIA -- As baseball’s brightest stars gathered at Citizens Bank Park for this week’s All-Star festivities, many front-office executives around the league spent the past couple days trying to figure out how they would approach the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline.

Given the crowded postseason picture in both leagues, we may still be a week or two (or more?) away from having any true sense of which teams will be buyers and which will be sellers.

For the All-Stars representing those bubble teams, the next three weeks present the chance to do what they’ve been trying to do all season: give their front office a reason to buy.

“It's fun to prove people wrong,” White Sox outfielder Tristan Peters said. “It's huge, obviously, especially in our division. It's tight, but if we get too focused on that, we’ll lose track of the game that we're playing that day.”

With 12 American League teams sitting within 3 1/2 games of a postseason spot and 11 in the National League within four games of one, the list of potential sellers is a short one at the break. Four NL teams (Reds, Giants, Mets and Rockies) and three in the AL (Athletics, Royals and Angels) appear headed in that direction, but for a number of the other 23 clubs -- eight of which are under .500 -- it’s simply too early to make that determination.

“We want to win baseball games and put the front office in a spot to get some players if we need them in certain spots,” Marlins pitcher Max Meyer said. “That's all you want, right?”

Among the 77 players named All-Stars this season, only two can currently be projected as likely trade candidates. The Giants are likely to trade Luis Arraez -- who made some news on Monday, saying he would not move off second base for another team -- and the Royals could trade Michael Wacha.

Of course, all it takes is one lengthy losing streak for a playoff contender to become a potential seller, so other players in this year’s Midsummer Classic might find themselves on the move if their teams stumble over the next two or three weeks.

“Anything we can do as players to try to keep the band together and go for it, that's what we want,” Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander said. “You never want to wave the white flag. I think we've been doing that the past couple months.”

Mason Miller knows all about the potential for distraction in the weeks leading up to the Deadline, having been traded from the Athletics to the Padres last July 31. San Diego, which hit the break at 48-48 to pull within 3 1/2 games of the final NL Wild Card spot, is one of those teams that could go either way between now and Aug. 3, creating a sense of urgency within the clubhouse.

“It's competitive; it's all about getting hot at the right time,” Miller said. “I think you'll see a lot of teams probably adding and going for it, because anything can happen any given year. You’ve just got to get in.”

The Marlins, Nationals, Pirates and Cardinals are all part of the cluttered NL Wild Card race, adding four teams into the mix that, prior to the season, many had predicted would be surefire sellers. The surprising play of those four teams might turn things the other way, adding a quartet of unexpected buyers into the fray.

“I guess in seasons past, maybe we would pay attention to it more because we’re thinking, ‘Who is going to get traded?’” Meyer said. “Here, it's like whatever [president of baseball operations Peter Bendix] thinks he can build. We love our team right now, but there's always room to grow.”

“What's great about our clubhouse is there's not too much of the outside noise,” Cardinals reliever Riley O’Brien said. “We’re playing hard for each other and whatever happens at the Deadline happens.”

For the managers of those bubble teams, the outside noise O’Brien referred to can penetrate a clubhouse with each win or loss. Twins manager Derek Shelton, a member of the AL’s All-Star coaching staff, has seen his team rise from 32-40 on June 13 to 48-49 at the break, winning eight of its last nine series during the past month.

“Winning just takes care of everything and it's more fun for everyone,” said Twins pitcher Joe Ryan, whose name has been a constant presence on the trade rumor mill for two years. “We’re playing good baseball, so hopefully we're in a position to add some more guys. The Trade Deadline stuff gets exhausting at times, but this year feels a little different – and feels a lot better.”

Minnesota entered the break three games behind the White Sox and Guardians in the AL Central and tied with the Mariners for the third AL Wild Card spot.

“Our leadership group, especially our owner, has been very diligent and very vocal about the fact that he wants to continue to build a winner in Minnesota,” Shelton said. “With where we're at in the standings, the way the American League is, and the fact that how everybody plays over the next three weeks, it's going to be really interesting to see how people go.”

Even the best teams in the league have decisions to make. If you’re the Rays or the Yankees, what moves might be needed to emerge atop the AL East? And while the Red Sox, Orioles and Blue Jays all face double-digit deficits in the division, all three clubs are within 2 1/2 games of a Wild Card spot.

“The AL East is gonna AL East,” Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger said. “It's a gauntlet every year, no matter where you're at; teams are competitive, owners are competitive, GMs are competitive, players are competitive, so it's a fun league. It's a fun division to be a part of, and it's close. It's what you want.”

“I'm just focused on winning games,” Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman said. “That stuff hurts my head to think about.”

When league-wide play resumes on Friday, there will be only 17 days until the Deadline, setting up a two-week sprint for teams to figure out their plans -- assuming two weeks is enough to accomplish that feat.

“I think people are going to wait as long as possible because everybody's so muddled up [in the standings],” Shelton said. “I think from Aug. 1 to Aug. 3, it's going to be wild. That's when it's really going to be crazy.”