Being a baseball general manager is never easy. They are equal parts budget balancers and talent evaluators, as well as shrewd negotiators and, in some cases, the bringers of bad news to those no longer associated with the club. It’s a thankless job in the best of times and can be a real pressure cooker at other times, particularly during the MLB trade deadline.
Trade season forces baseball executives to take a long, hard look at their clubs—and farm systems—to make some tough decisions and then face the music from the media afterwards. Some are buyers, some are sellers and others are somewhere in between.
