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The Deal Space: MLB trade season starts … when?Major League Baseball is about a month out from its Aug. 3 trade deadline. As push rapidly comes to shove, a huge segment of the league faces the same question and likely answer.
The question: Should we buy or sell?
The answer: Probably neither.
In a world with six playoff teams per league, the ranks of the sellers are a lot thinner than they used to be. Coming into this weekend’s series, 22 of 30 teams were within five games of a postseason spot. A number of teams that were in clear rebuild mode (like the Nationals and Cardinals) are in the thick of an unusually tough NL race. The AL wild-card hunt is chock full of teams that haven’t been good but are well within postseason striking distance because almost the whole league is mediocre or worse. This league!The stove is still going to get hot, though. Tarik Skubal could be the biggest deadline pitcher prize since CC Sabathia made his legendary run with the Brewers in 2008. Otherwise, the deadline harvest depends on how a few front offices interpret their teams’ play over the next four weeks.
