CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs are trying to do their part to add more teams into the “sellers” category by the Aug. 3 trade deadline. They took two of three from the Minnesota Twins, but lost a series to the Detroit Tigers, two teams on the fence, to start the second half of the season. Both Detroit and Minnesota are trying to stay in the race in an American League that appears so weak, almost every team can claim to be a contender.“There’s so much uncertainty about who’s going to be buying, who’s going to be selling,” Cubs team president Jed Hoyer recently said. “There’s probably some team that’s talking about selling right now that ends up buying and vice versa. That’s because (the deadline) isn’t tomorrow. We have almost three weeks until the deadline. I expect things will gain clarity towards the very end when teams finally get to that point.”Hoyer pointed out that some teams have already gotten hot after speculation about where players from those clubs could land. Hoyer spoke right after the All-Star break, but was likely alluding to the Boston Red Sox, a team that had a 15-game winning streak snapped Wednesday and holds the final wild-card spot in the AL.“Some years it’s not that case,” Hoyer said about the need to wait so long. “But this year it’s so jumbled and everyone in the AL is pretty much in the race.”Red Sox starter Sonny Gray seemed like a good fit for the Cubs, but Boston now seems to have turned its season around. Joe Ryan would be a dream from the Twins, but Minnesota seems unlikely to move him — for now. And everyone is asking about Detroit and Tarik Skubal.Still, some teams look like obvious sellers at the moment. Here are six starting pitchers who make sense from those teams:Jose Soriano’s 3.43 ERA is the same as Paul Skenes and Jesús Luzardo. (Andy Lyons / Getty Images)José Soriano, Los Angeles AngelsSoriano started the season in dominant fashion, but has slightly cooled off. Still, he’s 11th in innings pitched (118) and his 3.43 ERA is the same as Paul Skenes and Jesús Luzardo. His walk rate is a little elevated at 11 percent, but Soriano is striking out 24.8 percent of the batters he’s faced and he has the third-highest groundball rate (52.1 percent) among eligible starters. The latter would certainly be welcome with the Cubs elite defense behind him. Soriano is 27 and under control through 2028, so it would cost a hefty price for the Cubs, but he may be worth it.Reid Detmers, Los Angeles AngelsLike Soriano, Detmers is 27 and under control through 2028. But he’s a lefty and this is his first season in which he’s having some success as a starter. His ERA is slightly elevated (4.05), but only 12 eligible starters have a higher strikeout rate than his 27.4 percent and he pairs it with a strong 7.4 percent walk rate. Again, the cost will likely be high, but the Cubs don’t have this type of swing-and-miss stuff in their rotation and would love to pair it with Ben Brown and Cade Horton, both now and in the future.Robbie Ray is a pending free agent. (Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)Robbie Ray, San Francisco GiantsThe Cubs were once enamored with Ray when he hit free agency after his Cy Young campaign in 2021, but they weren’t looking to spend at that level for those numbers of years back then. Ray has suffered multiple injuries since and while the general stuff seems to be there and the results are solid this season (3.33 ERA in 110 2/3 innings), he’s not missing bats at nearly the same rate as the past. At 32.1 percent in 2021, Ray’s strikeout rate now sits at 20.6 percent with an unremarkable groundball rate and an elevated walk rate. He’s a pending free agent, so the cost may not be high, but he also seems like a pitcher primed to have his peripherals catch up to him down the stretch.