When Major League Baseball decided to change its playoff format, one of the byproducts of that move to add one more team per league was a decrease in the number of sellers at each deadline. More playoff spots mean more opportunities to get into the fringes of the race, and fewer teams willing to sell for the following year, come July. There’s recent history for the middling teams to get excited about too, as the Phillies overcame being the lowest seed in the NL playoffs last year to win the pennant.
This year in particular, there’s a specific phenomenon that has yours truly concerned about the availability of potential improvements.