Last week, I talked about how slow things have been this month in comparison to years past, including 2021, the first year of the draft coming juuuuust before the Trade Deadline. Since then, there have been a few notable trades – the Cubs made one on Saturday, swapping Chris Martin for Zach McKinstry – but it still feels atypically slow. For there to be NOTHING happening just two days before the deadline, that seemed particularly weird.
Just for additional context, the Cespedes Family BBQ gents numbered out the trades last year compared to this year, and, yup, even in the final week, it’s still wildly slow:
There is nothing to say that this year has to match last year’s volume of trades. BUT IF IT DOES, then we’re looking at about 42 trades between today and tomorrow. Um. Kay. Maybe I’ll get that second coffee sooner than I planned during the Blogathon.
We know the reasons for the slowness, by the way. Primarily, it’s the Juan Soto trade – the big suitors don’t want to move on anything else until they know they can or cannot get Soto, and that, in turn, holds up other sellers and other buyers – with a little bit from the much-less-likely Shohei Ohtani situation. And then it’s the expanded playoff format in the new CBA, which keeps would-have-been sellers a little closer to the action, and has left them to make the decision closer and closer to the deadline.
Speaking of which: two of the most “on the fence” teams are the Red Sox and Giants, both of whom play tonight. One last game to make up their minds?