Throughout the season, the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we debated the most underrated player in baseball. This week we’re going to tackle the trade market after Rafael Devers was moved.
Who will be the second-biggest star traded this summer?
R.J. Anderson: I think the market is shaping up in a way where a team who might be viewed as a conventional buyer could instead sell — or, perhaps, do a little of both. With that in mind, I’m going to roll with a dark horse name: Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta. Would the Brewers actually trade Peralta? Beats me. But I think they’ve shown time and time again in the past they’re willing to be creative and bold. He has one year remaining on his contract, suggesting he’s likely to get moved at some point over the next 12 months. Add in how the Brewers might feel empowered by having more potential starters than slots, and how the market could lack another true standout starter, resulting in teams either ponying up or perhaps trading big-league-ready talent to fill a need, and I think there’s a certain sense to it.
Mike Axisa: I’m going with Zac Gallen. He’ll be a free agent after the season and the Diamondbacks have a history of buying and selling at the same time, most notably when they traded away Zack Greinke while bringing in Gallen and Mike Leake at the 2019 trade deadline, so they could move him even if they hang around the wild-card race. Gallen is not having a typical Gallen season (5.19 ERA in 15 starts), but there is still talent and track record there, plus quality pitching is so scarce. I reckon more than a few contenders would be willing to plug Gallen into their rotation down the stretch, and hope they get the best two-plus months of his season. There are far worse upside plays out there.
Matt Snyder: The easy answer is Sandy Alcantara and now that he’s strung together three straight decent-to-good starts, we can begin to think about him being dealt again. I’ll get aggressive here, though, and go with a more recent Cy Young winner who looks great again this season: Chris Sale.
The Braves are out of the NL East race. They are 5½ games out of the NL wild-card race, which says they are a contender, but there are four teams in between. Should they fall back to something like eight games out by the last week of July, there’s reason to believe they could miss the playoffs. Sale is 36 years old and could be a free agent after this year. Sure, the Braves could keep him, given that there’s a club option for $18 million next year, and that’s the most likely scenario. It won’t hurt to listen to offers once they figure they are out of playoff contention in 2025, though, and moving Sale could be the right move for long-term organizational health here.
Dayn Perry: I’ll say the Cardinals find a fit for Nolan Arenado leading up to the deadline. You’ll recall they had a deal in place with the Astros this past offseason involving the likely future Hall of Famer, but Arenado used his no-trade clause to stay in St. Louis (or at least out of Houston). The Cardinals are on the fringes of contention right now, but the guess here is they take the long view and find a deal that satisfies Arenado. While he’s not the hitter he once was, Arenado still has very good contact skills, and he added a bit of bat speed this season. He also remains an excellent defensive third baseman. The Cardinals will need to kick in cash to help cover Arenado’s remaining commitment, and they’re willing to do that to some extent.
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