MLBTR Chat Transcript

Mark P

• A very busy day on the sports calendar reaches its logical peak with….the MLBTR Weekend Chat.  Let the questions and comments commence!

Guest

• Dodger trade deadline?

Mark P

• They’ll look for a backup catcher type given the uncertainty over Smith.  It’s possible LA might seek out more than just a pure backup if reports sour on Smith in the next couple of weeks, but for now, the team will probably just look for veteran support for Rushing (and a vet who can be easily optioned if and when Smith returns)Beyond that, it’s probably depth in general for the Dodgers.  A bullpen arm or bench addition, and maybe a starting pitcher since Ohtani/Glasnow/Snell are all dealing with injuries.  Because they’re the Dodgers, they’ll be linked to all the big names on the market out of pure due diligence, and they have the asset to make a big play for Skubal or someone if they really feel the need

Guest

• Any Reds news’s

Mark P

• They’re planning to move (at least) their impending free agents at the deadlinehttps://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/07/reds-to-pursue-trading-players-…

Blue Jays birds

• What would Louis Varlands hypothetical trade value be?

Mark P

• Though the roof.  But, Varland is one of the players Toronto absolutely won’t move, even if the Jays are increasingly looking like sellers

Chaim Bloom

• Do you see me buying or selling at the deadline? Its still a question everyone wants an answer too

Tony

• I would like the Cards to look for bullpen help. They can get by with a weak starting staff but have to fix the bullpen.

Mark P

• The fact that the Cards need help in both pitching areas isn’t great, so focusing on either the pen OR the bullpen leaves the club short.St. Louis is looking like they’ll buy to some limited extent at the deadline, but without moving any significant young trade assets.  Bloom’s eye is likely still on the overall rebuild process, so the Cards probably feel 2027 is a better year to truly contend than 2026.
• That all being said, I feel like I’ve made similar comments about the Cardinals in the last several weeks of chats, but they just keep surprising me and winning!

Padres

• If you attached Miller with Bogaerts (assuming no trade waiver) and maybe Kash Mayfield, does someone bite?

Mark P

• Bogaerts is owed $175MM from 2027-33.  One can make the case that it’s just about the most underwater contract in all of baseball.Miller, meanwhile, is just about San Diego’s best trade asset, and Mayfield is an intriguing pitching prospects.  Moving those two with Bogaerts just to get that contract off the books is just flat-out not happening.  If Miller is dealt, it will be for young and cost-effective talent, which is more important to the Padres in the long haul than getting a bad deal off the books.

Ted Turner

• AA said he’s looking for anything to make the team better. Is a trade with Mets for Peralta or Holmes realistic?

Mark P

• Atlanta will get some kind of pitching help, but an in-division isn’t likely.  The Braves and Mets aren’t exactly frequent trade partners.

Tigers Deadline

• What will we do iyo?

Mark P

• Losing any games to the Angels is a gut punch, but bottom line, Detroit is still 24-15 since the start of June.  Because the Tigers have so much invested in this season, they won’t look to sell until pretty close to the last minute, so stay tuned

WhiteSox Fan

• Reid Detmers, is he gonna be on the southside??

Mark P

• I have my doubts that Detmers is being dealt anywhere.

Breslow

• I know we’ve run off 13 in a row, but with young starters approaching career highs in innings already, wouldn’t it be more prudent to trade Gray and Chapman (maybe Duran) and come back stronger next season?

Mark P

• This is a wild take on a 13-game winning streak, lol.  “Sure, we look like the class of baseball, but imagine next year!”With Sandoval now pitching, Suarez on the mend, and Crochet (eventually) back, the Sox should have the ability to bolster the rotation enough to give the kids some extra rest.  Or, to get creative in piggybacking them or experimenting with a six-man rotation.  The bottom line is that unless the Red Sox suddenly fall apart as quickly as they’ve heated up, the Sox will absolutely be deadline buyers

The difference

• What is the benefit for a player (Carrasco et al) to elect free agency and then almost immediately re-sign a minor league deal rather than just accept an outright assignment?

Mark P

• Steve Adams recently explored this topic in one of the many, MANY Carrasco-related posts we’ve run on MLBTR this year.https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/07/braves-dfa-carlos-carrasco-mart…
• The gist….every new minor league contract probably contains a bit of extra money or flexibility for Carrasco, so it’s worth it for him to opt out even if he knows and the Braves know he isn’t going anywhere.

Derek

• Nats buy, sell or a combination of the both?

Mark P

• I’m leaning like 52-48 in favor of selling.  The Nats are another team that didn’t expect to be this good, so they’ve maybe been waiting for the other shoe to truly drop for a while now.  But the offense has been so good that if I’m Toboni, I consider getting a couple of relievers and a starter and seeing what I can do in a wild card chase.
• Even if the Nats (or Cardinals, White Sox, Marlins, etc.) may not feel like “true” contenders, getting involved in some higher-intensity games can be a nice learning experience for a young roster.

GIANTSFAN

• RIP Duane Ward

Mark P

• Shocking news during what was supposed to be a celebratory weekend for the 1992-93 Jays players.  I had the pleasure of interviewing Ward early in my career, and as anyone who heard him on the radio can attest, he was a great interview with plenty of opinions to share.

CHISOX FAN

• A team that leads its division is not a “true” contender?

Mark P

• The AL Central is (again) not a strong division.  Full credit to the White Sox for their success and for proving a lot of people wrong, and maybe they’ll keep it going and indeed make some postseason noise.  Crazier things have happened in baseball.

RE: Nats Pt. 2

• They seem to want to give Ford a chance but Ruiz is a barrier (not a huge one contractually but still). Is a position change (1st base?) logical here or is this a potential showcase?

Mark P

• Ruiz having what’s looking like the best season of his career creates a “nice probably to have” situation for the Nats in the catching department.  Just going with Ruiz and Ford as the catching combo next year is the most logical move, with the DH spot available if need be to give either extra at-bats.

Undisclosed

• Chicago seems to have no interest in making Kevin Alcantara anything more than a seldom used bench piece.Could they get a mid leverage type reliever for him?

Mark P

• He has more trade value than that.

M

• What would it take to pry Mason Miller from the Padres for the Mariners?

Mark P

• One of Sloan or Anderson as the centerpiece.  That’s the initial ask at least, and it would take a lot of negotiating for the Mariners to get the Padres down to their second tier of prospects (i.e. Montes, Arroyo) instead

Dan The Man

• What’s the likelihood of the Rangers making a trade for a high leverage arm for their bullpen and adding another bat for their lineup?  Seems like that has to be in Chris Young‘s plans towards the deadline.

Mark P

• Texas is another team that may have trouble addressing all of its needs in a meaningful way, but doing so while staying under the luxury tax threshold doesn’t seem out of the question.  More resources could be put into finding a hitter, as (in theory) good relievers have less of a price tag in terms of money or prospects.

Wrong turn

• What went wrong for the Royals this year?  Should they add on controllable players before the offseason or tear it all down and start over around Witt?

Mark P

• Perez, Pasquantino, and Garcia all declined at the plate, so KC didn’t get any better offensively even though Jansen, Caglianone, and Collins have all been good to okay.  But the lineup has ended up being the stronger link, since the rotation and bullpen have both been borderline disasters due to injuries and underperformance.There’s enough talent here that the Royals shouldn’t tear it all down, but it’ll tricky to thread the needle of making more necessary adds while operating within their budget.  At least Estevez and India will be off the books this winter, though Witt is getting a bump in salary.

Andrew

• Joc Pederson and prospects for  Hunter Goodman

Mark P

• Colorado has zero use for Joc, and I dunno if Texas has the prospect depth to try Goodman away from the Rox

BigO

• The Mariners are not giving up Hancock, correct? I’m hoping the Giants will dangle Heliot Ramos, but I don’t see many returns that makes sense on the pitching side.

Mark P

• I don’t think it’s out of the question that Hancock is quietly shopped.  There’s probably more likelihood that he’s dealt than any of the top four starters, at the very least.  The advanced metrics don’t really back up Hancock’s surface performance, so the Mariners might view this as a chance of selling high if a really tempting trade offer involving a win-now piece (like a prominent hitter) is floated

Small Markets

• Do teams with smaller payrolls like the Pirates, Rays, and Brewers that are in contention for the post season, push all theirs chips in and go for it?  Does the lack of a true favorite give hope to these teams and they get more aggressive and make a big move they wouldn’t normally make?

Mark P

• The Pirates are acting with more aggression than usual since they really want to break the playoff drought.  The Rays might also be a little more aggressive than usual due to their new owner, or (as you mentioned) if they feel the AL is wider open than usual.But in general, going “all in” carries a lot of extra risk for teams that rely so much on internal development.  If the Rays dealt some of their top prospects and the new acquisitions didn’t work out, that sets back Tampa’s plans for years, rather than just in 2026

Damon

• Do the Reds trade Elly?

Mark P

• Nope.  He’s under arb control through 2029, so there’s no rush or any real need for Cincinnati to deal him.  Moving Elly is the kind of burn-it-down move that signals a rebuild, and the Reds surely aren’t moving in that direction

Chris Getz

• We’re a pretty fun team in a weak AL Central. We’re not ready to be serious buyers. Maybe both can be true? Thoughts?

Mark P

• Completely true.  The Sox aren’t trying to “go for it” and win a title, but winning the AL Central is very possible.  Maybe even with just a couple of modest deadline additions.

Rays Up

• What do you think the cost would be for the Rays to trade for a catcher like Adley Rutschman?  Would the Orioles trade in division?

Mark P

• No way do the O’s move Rutschman to an AL East team, and certainly not this season.  Boston’s huge surge has kind of overshadowed the Orioles’ own seven-game winning streak, so Baltimore’s playoff hopes have suddenly renewed life

FJF

• How likely are the A’s to unload Shea Langeliers?

Mark P

• Quite unlikely.  It would take a sweetheart trade offer to pry him away from Sacramento.

Phanatics

• Do the Phillies have enough prospects to trade for a RH bat and pitcher or just one of the two?  Why not just give McFarlane and Wood a shot as relief pitchers. They certainly can’t do worse than what’s happening now.

Mark P

• Using the young guys in the pen seems plausible, as the Phillies can then direct their attention to finding starting pitching or a right-handed hitter (or two)

TDF

• Everyone knows the Giants will be sellers. What teams are buying who they’re selling?

Mark P

• The Rangers, Rays, Red Sox, and some teams that don’t start with the letter R could all use Arraez.  Ray will draw plenty of interest from a lot of pitching-needy teams.
• I wonder if the Giants will really go all that big on their deadline selling, as while they’d be open to moving some of their bigger contracts, finding a suitor will be tricky at best.

Brewerdrunk

• Does Sproat ever become a good SP than can command?

Mark P

• Sproat doesn’t turn 26 until September and he has all of 102 2/3 big league innings under his belt.  We may have been spoiled by the number of pitchers who seem to figure it out immediately after arriving in Milwaukee, but Rome isn’t always built in a day.

who’s on 1st

• When is the Athletics new stadium To be ready

Mark P

• The plan is Opening Day 2028

Gone Fishin

• With Sandy Alcantara and Max Meyer  at the top, would the Marlins go get another starter that would make the rotation a playoff series nightmare or do they absolutely need to get a bat to be a serious contender?

Mark P

• Eury Perez has been looking great and might be that third guy already.  Getting another starter for the back end of the rotation would make Miami that much more dangerous, however, plus they do need hitting

Jason

• What are the chances Cubs end up with someone like Logan Webb or Mason Miller? And doing so without giving up Josiah Hartshorn?

Mark P

• Posey already flatly shot down the chances of Webb being traded anywhere. Getting a long-term elite reliever in Miller would outweight Hartshorn’s long-term potential, in my view.

Joe

• Bohm and Sosa are both FA this year. Who do you think Phillies prioritize? I vote Sosa

Mark P

• I doubt either is back in Philly in 2027

Ken

• What kind of return could the A’s get for Carlos Cortes?

Mark P

• Cortes is an interesting and maybe underrated trade chip, probably because most players with his amount of team control aren’t really “trade chips” for a team in seller mode like the A’s.As I noted in the post earlier today, Cortes is 29, so the A’s might view his emergence as found money rather than putting him into their long-term plans.  With Soderstrom, Butler, and Rooker also locked up to extensions, there isn’t much room anyway in the corner outfield or DH picture.

  A team in need of an outfield bat (Brewers? Diamondbacks? Guardians?) can plug Cortes into their lineup tomorrow.

• Oh, it occurs to me that I didn’t actually answer Ken’s question :)I think an interesting pitching prospect or a pitcher who’s already in the bigs is a feasible ask for Cortes.  Not a top-100 type or a frontline arm, but someone the A’s can use as a long-term asset to try and bridge the gap until they get to Vegas

Os

• Helsley and Bautista are injured. Do you see the Orioles trading for a closer?

Mark P

• With Baltimore on a roll and suddenly back in the wild card hunt, they’re another team on the lookout for leverage arms.  With this in mind, however, things are tenuous enough for the O’s that we can’t assume they’re in buy mode just yet.  The next two weeks will tell that story, but credit to the Orioles for their recent solid play.

Guest

• Do you think the Cubs should prioritize the rotation or bullpen at the deadline?

Mark P

• Rotation.
• The Cubs can push the excess starters into the relief picture more easily

Dana Brown’s decesion…

• Astros- what can I get for Jeremy Pena? Janier Diaz? Josh Haden?

Mark P

• I’ll have to believe it when I see it before the Astros start selling.  Houston is still only four games back in a very winnable AL East, so I don’t think they’ve moved out of buyer mode just yet.

Kris

• The Braves seem like they would need too much to really compete.  Prob not a candidate for a major trade?

Mark P

• Can never rule out Anthopoulos when it comes to major trades.  The Braves have a lot going for them, but there are some holes — shortstop, outfield depth, and rotation depth now that some of the starters are coming back to earth.Getting one “major” upgrade in one of these spots and a minor add in another might be all Atlanta “needs,” per se.  As always, it depends on what offers are out there and how creative AA wants to get

Yankee GM

• This will be Brian Cashman’s 29th trade deadline and he’s made over 100 deadline deals, an average of over 3 per year.  He made 9 deals last year.  What do you anticipate them doing this year?

Mark P

• Relief pitching is a must, plus a couple of players for any of the C/2B/3B/SS spots.  Chisholm could conceivably be moved over to third base to cut into/erase McMahon’s playing time, if the Yankees prefer a 2B option on the trade market.

DaveSchneck

• The Astros aren’t in the AL east

Mark P

• /checks notes….hmm, you may be right.

Cliff

• You said earlier you believe Reid Detmers won’t get dealt. You said a week or so ago that you feel the Twins are will move on from Joe Ryan/Ryan Jeffers. Is this all subjective formed opinions from years past? Or do you actually have sources internally who are giving you this information?

Mark P

• Some of it’s subjective since if the Twins remain in the wild card race, they could look to buy rather than sell.  As noted earlier, the AL East Central is a weak division, and the Twins are only four games back of Chicago.My pessimism over Detmers or any controllable Angels player being traded is based on years of watching Arte Moreno’s half-hearted approach to selling at the deadline.  It makes all the sense in the world for the Halos to move Detmers or Soriano (or Neto, etc.) now, but Moreno has always resisted selling or tearing down the roster to any real extent.

That one guy

• Isn’t it weird we haven’t had a flurry of activity yet given its two weeks to the deadline?

Mark P

• Not at all.  Remember, the draft was just a little over a week ago.  That process takes up so much of the front office’s time and energy that teams have only just really turned focus towards trades within the last eight days.  (This is why pretty much every exec in baseball would love to see the draft moved back to June, btw.)Also, all but maybe a half-dozen teams are truly out of the postseason race so far, so there’s a lot of uncertainty for most of the league about whether they’ll be buying or sellers.

Guest

• If you’re the Giants and get a good offer for Lee…do you trade him?

Mark P

• Yes.  He’s an okay but unspectacular hitter, and an average defensive outfielder at best.  That’s not much impact for the money still owed on Lee’s contract, so San Francisco would likely jump at the chance if anyone offered to take that most or all of that contract off the books

Blue Jays fan

• Time for the jays to sell? Would you trade Gausman and Bieber?

Mark P

• The Blue Jays seem all but done.  Boston and Baltimore going on these huge runs have put the Jays 2.5 games behind the O’s just for fourth place in the division.  While the Jays are only 4.5 games out of a wild card spot, they’re ahead of only three other teams in the entire American League.Bieber yes.  Gausman is a pitcher the Jays likely want to bring back in 2027, so there might be a scenario where he’s dealt and then just re-signs in the winter.

Guest

• Is there any chance the Dodgers can get Arraz

Mark P

• No way would the Giants deal him their arch-rivals

Cleveland

• Bat to target at the deadline? Surely needs to be a RH power bat.

Mark P

• Taylor Ward hasn’t been a power bat since leaving Anaheim, but if the O’s fall out of the race, the Guardians should absolutely be checking on Ward’s availability.  Someone like Heliot Ramos also works, but he strikes out a lot and doesn’t walk — not a fit for Cleveland’s preferred model of hitter

Steven

• You mentioned the rangers for arraez do they have the assets to get him?

Mark P

• I believe so.  As good as Arraez has been this season, he’s still a rental player who had to settle for a one-year free agent contract since so few teams believed in his skillset.  His improvements at second base have at least checked one box defensively, but I wouldn’t expect the Giants to land a huge return for him in a deal.

charlie tuna

• Who did you have in the WC, Spain or Argentina?

Mark P

• Like many others, I figured before the tournament that one of Spain or France would win.  And, sure enough, Spain got it done.

Bozz

• When will the Pirates trade for bullpen help? The need is obvious

Mark P

• My suspicion is that other teams have been asking for the sun and the moon in trade talks for relievers, knowing that the Pirates are desperate.  The asking prices will normalize as we get closer to the deadline, but the Bucs are taking some costly losses in the interim

Moneyball

• At this point, I just desperately want controllable pitching that will help put this team into contention. What do you see as a potential Langeliers deal centered around arms?

Mark P

• I don’t disagree that Langeliers will eventually be traded, since it doesn’t seem like he and the A’s got too close on extension talks. Moving him midseason is trickier than moving him during an offseason, however.  Plus, the A’s would then have a big hole to fill at catcher if Langeliers was traded.

Ceyheyjay

• Wow! Now you answer soccer questions in a baseball chat. Who do you have in the big croquet match?

Mark P

• Probably whichever team has the best player, who I presume is named Garrett Croquet.
• And on that silly note, time to wrap up the chat!  Thanks as always to all who participated!  Next weekend’s chat may or may not happen depending on how busy things are pre-deadline, so stay tuned.
• If you’re interested in more baseball Q&A, one of the many benefits of our Trade Rumors Front Office subscription is the exclusive weekly live chats. The more limited field means you’re about 10 times more likely to get a question answered, as opposed to battling for space with hundreds of other questions in today’s chat. For more on our memberships, check out this link:https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/membership?ref=chat-7-19-26