Eight days out from the 2025 MLB trade deadline, nearly three-quarters major league baseball teams reside within 5½ games of a playoff spot. The downstream effect of expanding the postseason to a dozen teams becomes abundantly apparent every July, when the teams looking to offload players survey the landscape and see a market tilted decidedly in their favor.
This is a moment of discomfort for nearly every team in baseball. Getting talent in a trade can help win a World Series. It can also cost players who might have helped win one in the future. Trading players can revitalize a farm system.