The calls began in recent days, cursory in nature but loaded with meaning. MLB trade deadline season has arrived, and even if deals will take days, weeks, even months to manifest, plenty of them start with reach-outs by executives in early June.
How exciting the July 31 deadline will be depends on the next six weeks. One unfortunate victim of Major League Baseball's expanded postseason is the deadline. Because of the additional wild card added in 2022, more teams than ever see themselves as contenders -- until they unequivocally aren't.
Even if more teams jump into fray, more than a dozen executives surveyed over the past week agreed that there are unlikely to be any top-end players available at this year's deadline.