Players who could be on the move during MLB’s August trade period

Tuesday was the non-waiver trade deadline for baseball, but that doesn’t mean deals are done. As with last year and Justin Verlander’s down-to-the-wire August trade to the Astros, deals can happen over the next month as long as players pass through waivers before they happen.

If you’re unfamiliar with the process the easiest summation is that if a player passes through waivers completely, the team can trade that player to whatever team they wish. If they do not, the team can only trade with the team that claimed the player and they have 48 hours to get something done.

Trade waivers are also revocable at any time, keeping the player with their original team should deals on the table not match up to asking price. Which means we’re going to see a lot of teams throwing their players on waivers to see what happens before pulling them back, which is always fun.

Now that the non-waiver deadline and all of its trades are behind us, let’s look ahead to players who could be shipped elsewhere within the next month.

Donaldson is currently on the disabled list, and while he’s recently gotten back to baseball activities his limited time on the field this season means that he’s a top candidate to make it through waivers and set the Blue Jays up to trade him for pieces after he’s played a bit in August.

In 36 games he hit .234/.333/.423/.757 with five home runs this season, so if he comes back healthy and can improve that line even slightly it could net Toronto a prospect or two. Since Donaldson’s one-year, $23 million contract is up at the end of this year that will certainly be the Jays’ goal before the waiver deadline hits.

Multiple teams were in on Adam Jones for his defensive skills and veteran leadership presence before the trade deadline, but the Orioles and Jones made it clear he would be staying in Baltimore through Tuesday. That doesn’t mean he’s off the table for the waiver deadline though, and after a few more weeks playing for a woeful team with absolutely no upside — and who are not going to re-sign him in the offseason — he might change his mind about playing out the string in black and orange.

Jones is more of a candidate to be claimed at some point passing through waivers, and the Orioles can then hopefully get a reasonable return for him from the first team to engage. Since trade waivers are revocable it makes sense that, as long as Jones changes his mind about staying, the Orioles would at least check on the level of interest one more time. With so many of his teammates getting traded (Zach Britton, Jonathan Schoop, Manny Machado) his Orioles experience in August might be enough to make him reconsider.

Similar to Jones, Beltre has made it clear that he would like to stay in Texas for the rest of his career whether “rest” means the end of this year or another contract when this year runs out. However, if he should change his mind about that (or maybe gets some assurances that the Rangers would give him another short term contract in free agency) he’s another player who was being checked on by multiple teams. Including some he has a history with, like the Red Sox.

Dissimilar to Jones, Beltre might not make sense for as many teams and thus make a waiver deadline trade less likely. For example, the Red Sox were looking at Beltre to maybe take Rafael Devers’ spot at third while he was injured and offer some utility help after that. They got Ian Kinsler instead, and by the time they look to make a waiver move Devers will be back and their infield will be more secure.

Other teams interested made similar upgrades or stopgap trades, so if Beltre suddenly changes his mind there might not be landing spots that would make it worth it for the Rangers to try.

The Giants couldn’t decide if they were buyers or sellers through most of July, and by the end they landed on trying to trade the players who wouldn’t be returning after the end of this season. It was a smart middle ground, trying to get a few good prospects while not mortgaging their whole future. After all, they’re not depressingly bad this year. Just probably not making the postseason in a competitive division.

Still, Cutch didn’t get traded before the deadline so he’ll be one of the players who could still help a contender in September. There’s also a chance that at least one team interested before the deadline will only get more interested as the weeks go forward, not less.

The Nationals’ brief market testing for a Harper trade looked like nothing more than a “we wanted to see if another team would make us a Godfather offer” lark that quickly fizzled out after a few hours. I’m of the opinion that they were never planning on trading him unless that happened, others disagree. If something drastic happens and the Nationals decide to go for one more Hail Mary and see what they can get from whoever claims him on waivers, that could be a very fun 48 hours of trade negotiations. Which is a reason to root for this alone.

Wheeler is another situation where it seems the team has made their final decision on whether he stays or go. The Mets, who may or may not currently have a real front office in place, said that they plan to keep their three star pitchers (Syndergaard and deGrom in addition to Wheeler) as pieces to succeed around in the future.

That makes sense, in a vacuum. But the Mets are not a vacuum, they’re a pit of spare Dyson parts from antique models. So anything can happen and if any of those three pitchers might be tested out on waivers it’s Wheeler. He’s under team control through 2020, sure, but the brain worms controlling the Mets’ roster decisions just signed a six-year contract. So anything is possible.

The Yankees made a lot of pitching moves at the deadline. More than seemed necessary with them shipping out and acquiring relievers multiple times before the cutoff. One of those acquisitions was Lance Lynn who has been nothing more than fine this season and doesn’t seem to have a confirmed spot in the rotation as of now.

Is he a swingman? A sixth arm when they need it? Or is he insurance if Sonny Gray’s recent turnaround isn’t so permanent after all? Until his last few starts Gray was a walking liability who seemed to be mentally out of focus without any real idea how to fix it. Then that stopped! He hasn’t necessarily been lights out but they’ve been able to rely on him a little more.

However, if he falls off a cliff again and it happens right when things are getting sticky in the division race, then they can turn to Lynn and maybe see what the market will give them for Gray.

This is one that seemed almost certain to happen at the deadline, that even if the trade didn’t make a ton of sense Harvey would go to somebody. The Reds didn’t give up a whole lot to get Harvey from the Mets and they’d almost certainly get more in return if they found a trade partner. His turnaround in Cincinnati hasn’t gone unnoticed and there are certainly teams who could use another starter as we head into crunch time for many division races.

With Harvey’s contract up at the end of the year it’s shocking he hasn’t been flipped already as the Reds aren’t going anywhere this season. So he may be option 1A at the end of August for teams who need an extra hand and have a few prospects to toss the Reds’ way. This is one of the waiver trades with the clearest path to being a win for both sides in any hypothetical deal.