MLB Trade Deadline: 5 overtly un-movable players

Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Talk about tired old lists of ‘who needs to be traded’ or ‘what trade scenario would be ideal’ or ‘five deals that need to happen this time of year.’ The MLB trade deadline fast approaches and it’s always an exciting time of year. There should be an active market in 2015. Even Ryan Howard could be headed to the American League to play the part of a designated hitter on a contender.

Sure, Call to the Pen is just as guilty as any other baseball blog out there of publishing trade rumor articles. But this piece sets itself apart in that we’ll examine five players who will not be getting looked at as trade candidates — not before July 31 and probably not ever.

To be on this list, getting long in the teeth is a pretty typical trend. So too is diminished production in recent years, as well as a fat pay check being attached the players’ names. Being mentioned here also does not mean the player is bad at their job. It just means they are overvalued and probably have an agent who knows how to negotiate and use leverage better than most other representatives of players in the rest of the league.

Next: A tough sell