Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports
We’re just about a month away from this year’s trade deadline, and the coming weeks surely will be dominated by rumors of the players who could be on the move before Aug. 2 at 6 p.m. ET.
This week, we saw the first big deal of the season, when the Mariners acquired veteran first baseman Carlos Santana from the Royals in exchange for two minor league pitchers. The interesting thing about the trade was that, at the time of the move on Monday, Seattle was seven games out of the final wild card spot with a 10.0% chance to make the postseason, according to FanGraphs. After the team lost that night, those playoff odds fell to 7.5%. Many teams under similar circumstances wouldn’t have elected to add a 36-year-old who is a free agent after the season. But the Mariners aren’t like most teams, no matter where they sit in the standings. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2001, and they were expected to be contenders when this year began.
