Every MLB offseason quality starting pitchers get traded, the only debate is who will be wearing a different jersey in 2021.
There comes a point where MLB teams need to move on from a starting pitcher, even a superstar or a fan favorite. If it for financial reasons to trim payroll, or if it is to rebuild and gain younger prospects. This already happened this offseason when the Texas Rangers shipped Lance Lynn to the Chicago White Sox.
It has been done many, many times. Sometimes, they work out for the team trading their star. When the Chicago White Sox traded Jose Quintana to the Cubs in midseason of 2017, they got Eloy Jimenez in return and was named an American League Silver Slugger. In 2018, the Tampa Bay Rays acquired Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for their two-time All-Star ace Chris Archer. Both Meadows and Glasnow played huge parts in the Rays’ pennant run.
Other times, teams are taken advantage of and do not get a significant, or close to a fair deal in return. The Pittsburgh Pirates received Colin Moran, Joe Musgrove, and a few more prospects from the Houston Astros in exchange for All-Star Gerrit Cole. Cole went on to have two dominant seasons for the Astros and then signed the largest contract a pitcher had ever signed when he inked a nine-year, $326 million contract with the New York Yankees. The Pirates lost a stud and did not get close to a fair return.
Many pitchers are going to be traded this season. Here are three pitchers who could be traded before the start of the 2021 MLB season, or possibly midseason.