With MLB trade deadline rumors kicking in earlier than normal, let’s take a look at what the roles for each NL West team will be at the deadline
The MLB trade deadline typically spurs movement in July, but this year has started early. What position will each team in the NL West take in the MLB trade deadline market (buyer, seller, undecided). We will examine how each team will fit into the July activity.
Before this season, the NL West was considered to be a very challenging division that had people predicting as many as three playoff teams coming out of the division, but interestingly, it was rarely the same three teams.
Currently, the division is holding serve, as all five teams remain within 10 games of the playoffs, which is an impressive status for any division, especially this late in the season. In the National League in 2017, multiple teams were already 20 games out of their division, let alone out of the Wild Card. In fact, in 2017, the NL West had two teams who were 19.5 and 24.5 games behind the division leader already on this date, and they were also both at least 15 games behind the Wild Card leaders.
After making few offseason moves, the Dodgers seemingly intended to hold serve in the division, but they are currently looking up at the Diamondbacks. The Giants made huge moves, acquiring long-time franchise faces Evan Longoria from Tampa Bay and Andrew McCutchen from Pittsburgh, yet they have been hovering around .500 throughout the season.
The Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks joined the Dodgers in the playoffs, but both had rather controversial strategies to the offseason as both spent the majority of their offseason investing in further bullpen pieces, the Diamondbacks more on the mid-range to low-end price while the Rockies went after a few top-end free agents.
So how could the MLB trade deadline alter the NL West race in 2018? Let’s start with the current division leader, the Arizona Diamondbacks…
Next: Arizona