Trade deadline looms, separating contenders from the pretenders
Matt Chapman and the A’s, trying to run down Jose Altuve and the Astros. Francisco Lindor and the Indians, looking up at Nelson Cruz and the surprising Twins. Max Scherzer and the Nationals, chasing Ronald Acuña Jr. and the Braves.
Baseball gets going again this weekend, and a handful of contenders have a lot of work to do.
Five of the majors’ six divisions feature deficits of at least 5½ games as play resumes after the AllStar Game, in which the American League beat the National League 43 Tuesday night. Life is pretty good for two marquee franchises, with Cody Bellinger and the Dodgers in control of the NL West again and Aaron Judge and the Yankees looking down on the rest of the AL East despite a rash of injuries.
“This team is capable of some great things,” Yankees pitcher James Paxton said. “You’ve got some really talented players here, guys with a lot of drive, great leadership. We’re set up really well to make a good run the second half here as well.”
The one exception at the moment is the crazy NL Central, in which the Cubs have a 4½game advantage — over lastplace Cincinnati. Yup, that’s right, it’s just 4½ games from top to bottom, with Christian Yelich and Milwaukee a halfgame back of Javier Baez and the inconsistent Cubs.
“Nobody really wants to run away with it,” St. Louis shortstop Paul DeJong said. “That gives us confidence as a group to think that we can run away with it.”
It sets up for some very tough decisions ahead of the trade deadline after trade waivers were eliminated in the offseason, meaning no player can be traded after July 31 through the end of the regular season. Players who clear outright waivers still can be claimed and will be eligible for the postseason if they are in the organization before Sept. 1.
Buying or selling will be one tricky call for several teams, all the way to the final days of July. The hard deadline also could affect the prices for some of the top players on the market, possibilities like Giants pitchers Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith, Toronto righthander Marcus Stroman and Detroit lefty Matthew Boyd.
“I know something could happen, but I don’t take a peek at what people are saying,” Smith said. “There’s so much out there, and you don’t know what’s true.”
Cleveland could inject some drama into the AL Central as soon as this weekend, when Minnesota comes to town for a threegame series. The Indians hit the AllStar break with the majors’ longest active win streak at six, improving to 216 since June 1 and moving 5½ games back of the divisionleading Twins.
“In the beginning, it seemed like we were good, then all of a sudden in May, we had that stretch where we weren’t playing as good as we wanted to play,” Lindor said. “But right now, we continue to play the game right and we’re enjoying it. We’re all having fun. We all get along, we love each other, we back each other up. We’re having a blast.”
Washington also is having some fun again, moving into position to shake up the NL East after a terrible start to the season. Led by a resurgent Scherzer, the Nationals have won 15 of 19 to pull six games behind of the divisionleading Braves.
Washington plays Atlanta 14 times in the second half of the season, including seven games in July.
“When we can go out there and play our best baseball and play mistakefree baseball, we’re a tough team and we can compete with anybody in this league,” Scherzer said.
The Nationals have seven players with at least 11 homers, led by Anthony Rendon with 20. But everyone is going deep these days.
Beginning with Thursday night’s AstrosRangers game in Arlington, the game’s top power hitters resume their assault on an array of home run records. Yelich leads the way with 31, putting together an appropriate encore to his NL MVP performance a year ago.
The majors are on pace for 6,668 homers, which would smash the record 6,105 hit in 2017, and the real heat of the summer, when hits increase, is only just beginning.
“Guys are working year in and year out on their swings,” Pittsburgh first baseman Josh Bell said during the AllStar break. “We’re just focused on trying to put a show on for you guys.”
The show is on once again.