How was your week?

Posted: July 9, 2023 by Sports Time Radio in sports

In Wednesday’s blog we looked at some teams that could be sellers at the trade deadline that aren’t normally in that position. I thought that today we could look at some teams that might be buyers at the trade deadline that in recent years have been looked at as sellers.

The Cincinnati Reds are in 1st place in the National League Central. Cincinnati currently leads the Milwaukee Brewers by 2 games. It’s doubtful that there will be a wild card team to come out of the N.L. Central, so the Reds will have to win the division to make the playoffs.

Cincinnati has been winning behind it’s young core of players. They did recently get their one veteran Joey Votto back but is it possible that the Reds could add a veteran presentence just to have on the bench.

It does seem more likely that if Cincinnati makes any type of additions to their team before the trade deadline it would be pitching. As we’ve mentioned before every team can use pitching and the Reds are no exception.

Getting Hunter Greene back from injury will help the Reds starting rotation, but even with Greene’s return the Reds could probably use another starting pitcher.

The Reds bullpen has been one of the best if not the best in baseball this season and it’s possible that they may not want to add anyone to it for fear of messing up the chemistry that the bullpen has. Of course, if the right pitcher is out there it wouldn’t make sense for the Reds to take a look at them.

Another interesting team in the National League is the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks are just 1/2 a game ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. Everybody is expecting the Dodgers to go out and add players at the trade deadline, but what will the Diamondbacks do.

It seems that if the Diamondbacks decide to add anything at the trade deadline the one thing that comes to mind is bullpen help. Arizona seems to be in that closer by committee set up and that rarely works for teams. Andrew Chafin is leading the team in saves with 8 while Scott McGough and Miguel Castro have each picked up 7 saves this season.

Big time closer aren’t the easiest thing to find at the trade deadline, but it’s possible that there may be one or two available. If there is someone who can set in and just handle the 9th inning for the Diamondbacks, it could help get them unto the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

Instead of just picking one or two American League teams to throw into this mix how about we throw almost an entire division into this.

The American League central is a terrible division there’s no doubt about that, but what that also means is that every team with the exception of the Kansas City Royals could win it and that might make then buyers at the trade deadline.

The Cleveland Guardians just moved past the Minnesota Twins to take over 1st place in the division. The Detroit Tigers coming off their combined no-hitter yesterday are in 3rd place 5 1/2 games out. Even the Chicago White Sox who have been a huge disappointment this season are still in it even though they’re in 4th place and 8 games out of 1st place.

It’s doubtful that any of these teams would make a huge move like a trade for Shohei Ohtani or anything like that, but that’s probably not needed to win this division.

Cleveland isn’t known for making big moves at the trade deadline while Minnesota has made some deals when they’ve been in contention. As for Detroit they are kind of in the same situation as Cincinnati and you have to wonder if they’d be interested in adding anyone or if they’ll just allow their young players to continue getting experience. As for the White Sox I think that they have to figure out what their actual issues are before they make any kind of moves.

So there you go just some teams that might look to be buyers that don’t always do that. Let me know what you think these teams will do and if there’s another kind of under the radar type of team that might be buying at the trade deadline that we might not expect to be.

As always don’t forget to look for me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

Comments
  1. Even though the AL Central is a weak division, I think the White Sox are already done.
    It’ll be between Cleveland and Minnesota so look for the two teams to make some kind of veteran acquisition to help down the stretch.
    Cincinnati has been the surprise team in the NL but they’re certainly not on a par with the Baltimore Orioles. But I look for them to make a deal as well as we head to the last half of the season.

    Like

  2. Even though the AL Central is a weak division, I think the White Sox are already done.
    It’ll be between Cleveland and Minnesota so look for the two teams to make some kind of veteran acquisition to help down the stretch.
    Cincinnati has been the surprise team in the NL but they’re certainly not on a par with the Baltimore Orioles. But I look for them to make a deal as well as we head to the last half of the season.

    Like

Leave a reply to Stewart Silverman Cancel reply