The All-Star Game rosters are set, but the trade deadline picture is already starting to take shape around a handful of familiar names.
The 96th All-Star Game is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on July 14 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pa., and the group includes 26 first-time All-Stars, plenty of future Hall of Famers and a few players who may be wearing different colors before long. With the Aug. 3 trade deadline approaching, these are the five All-Stars most likely to be moved.
Joe Ryan is back in the rumor mill for the same reason he’s been there for a while: he keeps pitching too well for a team that keeps hovering around the middle. The Twins are 44-47, four games out in the division and just a game-and-a-half from a wild card spot in a weak AL, but if they slip further, Ryan becomes their best chip. He’s an All-Star for the second straight season, and his latest outing against the Yankees on Sunday made the case again - seven shutout innings, three hits allowed, nine strikeouts and 17 whiffs.
Michael Wacha is another starter who could draw plenty of interest if his club falls out of it. The Royals are 36-54 and, barring a Marlins-like surge, don’t look like a team that will be in the playoff picture by deadline time.
Wacha, who just turned 35, was named an All-Star for the first time since 2015 and is one of only two Kansas City representatives. He’s also under control through the end of the 2028 season, and as the AL’s innings pitched leader, he checks the kind of box contenders love: a starter who can work deep into games and give quality innings.
Aroldis Chapman is still blowing hitters away at 38, and the Red Sox may have a decision to make if they continue drifting away from October. Boston’s lefty owns a 2.10 ERA, a 30% strikeout rate and the seventh-most saves in baseball, all while ranking in the 91st percentile in average fastball velocity.
He’s an All-Star for the second year in a row with the Red Sox, but with Boston carrying just a 17.7% chance to make the postseason, the relief market could make him valuable. And if the Sox do move him, one destination shouldn’t be on the table: the Yankees.
Luis Arráez landed in San Francisco on a one-year, $12 million deal in February, and he has been exactly what the Giants needed offensively. He’s been their most consistent hitter, earned one of the team’s two All-Star spots and has also turned in the best defensive work of his life at second base, where he has 11 outs above average.
The Giants are playing more like the Rockies than a contender, and the sense around the club is that veterans are available. Still, some of the larger contracts on the books won’t be easy to move, which makes Arráez a cleaner fit for other teams: a rental bat, a strong defender, an on-base threat around 36% and the lowest strikeout rate in the majors at 4.1%.
Eduardo Rodriguez rounds out the group, and he’s quietly put together one of the best seasons of any starter in a pitcher-heavy National League. The first-time All-Star has leaned more on his changeup than his fastball, and that adjustment has made the heater more effective.
The result has been a tough pitcher to square up: opponents are hitting just .219 against him, and his 2.25 ERA is the third-lowest in the NL. He also owns the fifth-most bWAR among pitchers in MLB.
The Diamondbacks are 44-45, sitting second in the NL West but 14 1/2 games behind the Dodgers and four games out of a wild card spot, so they could end up in that familiar middle ground between buying and selling. If they do decide to sell, Rodriguez would have a strong case as the best left-handed starter not named Tarik Skubal available.
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