The lack of blockbuster deals at the MLB trade deadline is bad news for the offseason, too

About an hour before the trade deadline, an intrepid member of the SB Nation social team came into the baseball room and asked us for the three biggest names to be moved that day. The goal was to put the names into a social graphic. This led to a mini-debate about whether Ian Kinsler was the third-biggest name or if that honor belonged to Wilson Ramos. The second-biggest name was Brian Dozier, of course. Even if you extended the parameters to include Manny Machado and all of the other July trades, a list of the three most exciting players still might include Dozier, J.A. Happ, or Brad Hand.

The social graphic never got made. The first rule of connecting with the kids on social media is “Yeah, they probably aren’t going to care about Brian Dozier.” Not until he’s riding an ostrich in a funny Instagram video or something. No, this was a deadline filled with aluminum foil and Ziploc bags instead of $90 prime ribs — a functional, practical deadline filled with household items to round out the pantry. It was a busy deadline, but we learned that busy isn’t always synonymous with thrilling.

Machado and Chris Archer are a fine duo, but they can’t compete with Sonny Gray, Justin Verlander, Jose Quintana, Yu Darvish, and J.D. Martinez. Where were the blockbuster trades this deadline? Is this a trend? A blip? My imagination?

I’m guessing blip. First, let’s list the selling teams this offseason:

That’s 13 teams, or nearly half the league. Now let’s whittle that list down to the teams that seemingly were surprised by this development. That is, let’s look for the teams that weren’t actively in a full rebuild or close to it this offseason:

The other teams had already made their rebuilding moves. The Marlins traded their historically unique outfield. The White Sox performed an All-Starectomy on their rotation last year, and the Tigers finally parted with one of the greatest pitchers in franchise history. Their booths at the flea market were empty, for the most part. The real haggling was done months or years before.

To get a truly exciting deadline, the teams in that second bullet-pointed list were going to need to step up and unload the players who made them believe they had some sort of chance.

The Rays did that by trading Archer, even if they’re attempting to move sideways instead of fully committing to a rebuild. The Jays half-did this by trading J.A. Happ, Seunghwan Oh, and Roberto Osuna, but anyone else who could have melted the deadline (Josh Donaldson, Marcus Stroman) was either hurt or horrible this season, sometimes both.

The Orioles did their part. The Twins were expecting to contend with a young roster, and they’ll probably have a similar plan next year, which meant they were only going to unload the pending free agents. The Royals would have loved to trade a bunch of good players, but their problem appears to be a roster that’s mostly devoid of good players.

The best parts of the Angels are the players who justify their existence and shouldn’t be traded. The only veteran players with value on the Rangers were Cole Hamels, Adrian Beltre, and Shin-soo Choo, but only Hamels was a logistical fit for another team, which meant the team held on to nearly everyone else.

The Mets are unique and forever compelling in their own special way, and I love them for it.

So that’s the story of the baker’s dozen sellers at the deadline and why there weren’t a lot of blockbuster deals. There just weren’t a lot of blockbuster deals to be made, not unless the Rangers played some fourth-dimensional chess and traded away players like Joey Gallo. Not unless the Royals suddenly said, “Just kidding. We have a lot of good players. We were just hiding them to mess with you.” Not unless the Mets finally gave up on the idea of contending on the back of a super-rotation again.

That conclusion might or might not interest you. There’s a corollary to it, though, that will surely interest you, and it goes like this:

This all means that the offseason is going to be complete crap when it comes to trades.

There were 13 sellers, which means there were 17 buyers or stand-patters. Those 17 teams either believe in themselves right now, or they believe that they can come back and contend next year. The Pirates and Giants might be on shakier ground with that assumption than the Astros and Dodgers, but in order for them to be sellers this offseason, the next two months would have to be a miserable black hole that tears the fabric of space and time.

If the offseason trade market depends on those 13 teams, then, take another spin through their rosters and see what they still have left to offer.

The Angels could, uh, offer Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, in theory. They might — might — decline to do so and look to add to their roster instead. The Marlins will probably deal J.T. Realmuto, and the Reds will at least consider dealing Raisel Iglesias and Scooter Gennett. The White Sox can offer Jose Abreu, still.

The Mets. Our enjoyment of trades this offseason depends entirely on the Mets.

Mays help us all.

This is what happens in a league filled with haves and hoping-to-have-in-three-years. Once the fire sales happen, young and underpaid players sprout out of the freshly tilled soil, and they’re not going anywhere. Now that the active-if-underwhelming deadline is over, it sure looks like most teams are close to their purest, inevitable form. There are still a couple of All-Stars making post-arbitration money on bad teams. But there sure aren’t a lot of them, and it’s going to kill the trade market this winter.

Luckily the free agent market should be fun. That “should” is doing an awful lot of work, though, because there are no guarantees that last year’s austerity will end just because the Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants wriggled under the luxury tax. Teams will still worry about long-term contracts and compensatory draft picks. The market might be just as miserable after the big stars sign.

Maybe not. Maybe we’ll have a wonderland of free agents signing nine-figure contracts, and the Winter Meetings will be absolutely bananas. One thing I’m pretty sure of, though, is that the bananas won’t come from trades. Our only hope is for some of those semi-contending teams to fall into that black hole. It sounds ghoulish, but if you’re a fan of trades, it’s our only hope.

Other than the Mets.

Mays help us all.