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US Trade Deficit Widens to Largest Since 2022 on Weaker Exports BloombergWith roughly one month until the MLB trade deadline, wise fantasy baseball managers will look to clear roster space. We will see many players emerge as fantasy factors as the result of deadline deals, and those who have some room on their bench can add those men right away, and in some cases, they may be able to get ahead of the pack by picking up players who could benefit from the most-rumored trades. To make this happen, managers will want to make 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 trades this month, where they give up multiple useful players for one difference maker. And when looking for deals of this nature, here are a few players who could find their names involved.
There should be a strong market to trade Helsley to a team that needs saves. After all, the right-hander leads baseball by a wide margin with 31 saves and also owns a 2.54 ERA. But Helsley has walked a tightrope when securing narrow wins of late, having walked 10 batters in his past 11 appearances. The purpose of including Helsley in this article is not to predict that his season is due to a major downturn. Rather, the suggestion is for managers to trade him for a premium return and then either acquire a less coveted reliever or scour the waiver wire for a replacement. Helsley is a fine reliever, but he has benefited by the Cardinals generating the most save chances (45) of any team. There are clubs with similar records who have generated 10-15 fewer save opportunities.
This is getting ridiculous. Hader has been healthy all season, has held opposing hitters to a .196 average, and has blown just one save. And despite taking care of the business that he can control, the left-hander ranks 16th in baseball with 13 saves. Even a recent hot stretch from the Astros hasn’t helped much, as Hader recorded just five saves in June. Many fantasy managers will look at his lowly save total and mediocre 3.82 ERA and conclude that he is having a down year, but a deeper look shows a remarkable strikeout total of 60, which is the second-highest mark (behind Mason Miller) of anyone who has earned a save this year. It’s easy to envision a scenario where Hader is the most valuable closer in the second half.
Even with the league-wide increase in steals, players who post sizable totals in both homers and swipes are hard to find. For example, just eight players have accumulated at least 10 homers and 15 swipes, and nearly all of those men were selected in the initial three rounds of 2024 drafts. Kim, Brenton Doyle and Jarren Duran are the outliers in the group, and most managers agree that Duran and Doyle are in the midst of breakout seasons. Kim will surely be the easiest man from the group to acquire, and he becomes more appealing when noticing that Statcast assigns him a .251 xBA that is 23 points higher than his actual mark.
As hard as this would have been to envision during draft season, Ozuna has emerged as the best hitter in a star-studded Braves lineup. We shouldn’t be surprised that the 33-year-old is posting eye-popping power numbers, as he is coming off a 40-homer season. And perhaps we shouldn’t be shocked by his .296 average, as he hit .312 in 2017 and .338 in 2020. The key for Ozuna is that he is absolutely crushing the baseball, as his 93-mph average exit velocity equals his mark from the 2020 campaign and is up 1.2 mph from last season. Ozuna trails only Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani in xSLG, which accurately depicts his second-half power potential.
Martinez hit well in June (.874 OPS) but likely wasn’t dominant enough to dramatically increase his trade value. The recommendation here is to put a reasonable offer for the 36-year-old, who places ninth in baseball in xSLG and could be one of baseball’s top power hitters this summer. In a perfect world, Martinez is traded this month to a contending team who plays in a bandbox. But even if that doesn’t happen, he can fare well enough in the Mets' surging offense to stay in all fantasy lineups. Martinez missed Tuesday’s game with a sore ankle that was caused by wearing new cleats, and managers will want to see him back in the lineup before making an offer.
Although Bregman hasn’t been awful this year, his underwhelming season has included just nine homers, two steals and a .248 average. Additionally, his .702 OPS is over 100 points lower than his marks in each of the previous two seasons. Statcast suggests that the 30-year-old has thus far been fortunate just to post average statistics, as his xBA (.235) and xSLG (.360) are noticeably lower than his actual marks. This is shaping up as the worst season of the nine-year veteran’s career.
Free agent forward Kyle Anderson is headed to the Warriors via a sign-and-trade transaction with the Timberwolves, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link). He’ll be signing a three-year, $27MM contract. The third year is non-guaranteed, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets.
The Timberwolves will receive a future second-round pick swap and cash in the sign-and-trade, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter link).
Anderson will slot into the traded player exception created in the Klay Thompson three-team deal with Dallas and Charlotte. The acquisition will put the Warriors a projected $3.2MM below the $170.8MM luxury tax line with 13 players rostered, cap expert Yossi Gozlan tweets. They’ll be hard-capped at the first tax apron ($178.1MM).
It had been speculated that Anderson, always a solid role player, would be difficult for Minnesota to retain due its salary-cap issues. The Timberwolves are a second-apron team, severely limiting their flexibility. They won’t be able to use the TPE generated by the Anderson sign-and-trade because of the restrictions for second-apron teams under the current CBA.
Rated No. 30 on our list of top 50 free agents, Anderson will jump right into the Warriors’ rotation. He appeared in 79 regular season games last season, including 10 starts, averaging 6.9 points and 4.2 rebounds in 22.6 minutes per contest.
The 30-year-old is highly regarded for his defensive versatility, intangibles, and ability to serve as a secondary ball-handler, though he doesn’t provide much offensive punch. Anderson averaged double digits in points just once in a career that began in the 2014/15 season and is a 33.8% career 3-point shooter.
The last place Chicago Cubs could be making moves in the next month that disappoint the fan base. Cubs fans have been disappointed in more ways than not this season, as they've certainly been one of the worst stories in Major League Baseball.
There are a few reasons for sitting in last place with a 39-46 record, but their lack of moves in the offseason is the biggest one.
Chicago made decent moves throughout the offseason, but it was clear that they needed more. They relied heavily on the offense to figure it out and more than 80 games in, that obviously wasn't the right decision.
Jed Hoyer said last week that they could be sellers at the deadline, perhaps the right decision given how everything has gone. He had the following to say, according to Jesse Rogers of ESPN.
"It has undoubtedly dragged on far longer than we expected or hoped," Hoyer said. "We need to play a lot better. We dug ourselves a hole, and we have to dig out of that hole.
"It's important we do that in this next 33 days or whatever we have until the deadline. You have to make hard decisions sometimes."
Hoyer then added that it might not be the right time for the conversation but acknowledged it could happen.
"I don't think it's time for that full conversation, but it's just a reality that we have to play better in July," he said. "We backed ourselves into a corner."
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com listed a player who hasn't been in a ton of trade rumors but could make sense to move, given his contract. Feinsand listed Ian Happ as a potential trade suitor for the Philadelphia Phillies.
"Adding an outfield bat -- Luis Robert Jr.? Ian Happ? Tommy Pham? -- would appear to be the biggest priority for an otherwise complete team."
Happ, a proven veteran, could bring a decent haul back. At the very least, if the Cubs are going to sell at the deadline, they need to be well-positioned to make moves during the offseason. Getting prospects back in these deals would help with that.
With arguably the best farm system in baseball already in place, Chicago would have even more to land a star during the fall and winter months.
Whatever happens will be controlled by how they play in July, and if things continue, the front office will have some tough decisions to make.
David Schoenfield, ESPN Senior Writer
We're just under a month away from the July 30 MLB trade deadline -- and it's shaping up as one of the most unpredictable deadlines in a long time.
At the start of this week on Monday, just 5.5 games separated nine teams for the final two wild-card spots in the National League, with only the Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies definitely out of the playoff picture. In the American League, only three teams look out of it, although projected playoff contenders like the defending champion Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays are fading fast and need to start turning things around.
What happens on the field over the next 28 days will thus have a huge effect on what ultimately happens off it -- let alone the impact it will have on how aggressive some of those wild-card contenders may or may not be with their trades. Factoring in where teams are in the standings, let's name one major league player each team should trade for -- or away -- before the deadline.
Klay Thompson plans to join the Dallas Mavericks on a three-year, $50 million contract as part of a sign-and-trade involving the Golden State Warriors and Charlotte Hornets, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespnBREAKING: Free agent Klay Thompson plans to join the Dallas Mavericks on a three-year, $50M deal with a player option, sources tell ESPN. Thompson ends his historic Warriors run as part of a multi-team sign-and-trade that'll also send Josh Green to Charlotte. <a href="https://t.co/4GJ5hR3H5o">pic.twitter.com/4GJ5hR3H5o</a>
According to Wojnarowski, the Warriors will receive two second-round picks from the Mavericks to complete the deal:
Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespnDallas is sending its own 2031 second-round pick in deal, per source. <a href="https://t.co/aLPUSO231s">https://t.co/aLPUSO231s</a>
Thompson spent his first 13 NBA seasons with the Warriors. He signed a five-year, $189.9 million contract with the Warriors in 2019, just weeks after suffering a torn ACL that would cost him the entire 2019-20 season. The five-time All-Star would tear his Achilles the following offseason and miss 2020-21 and much of 2021-22 as a result.
In total, Thompson did not play basketball for 30 months before returning in January 2021. Since his return, Thompson has been in a clearly diminished state—particularly on the defensive end, where he'd previously been one of the most rugged perimeter defenders in basketball.
The Warriors were able to navigate Thompson's streaky shooting to win the 2022 NBA championship, and he has mostly returned to form as a shooter, knocking down 41.2 percent of his threes in 2022-23.
Still, there are now greater limits to Thompson's impact on the floor than the last time he signed a new max deal.
The Warriors entered the offseason having to navigate the realities of the new collective bargaining agreement. Team governor Joe Lacob was open about his desire to duck under the luxury tax given the exorbitant penalties paid by teams in the new CBA—particularly when it comes to roster flexibility.
The Warriors and Thompson made no real progress on contract talks ahead of free agency, with Golden State largely focused on a failed pursuit of Paul George. That allowed Dallas to swoop in and land Thompson.
Trading Thompson—a foundational piece to the franchise—indicates a shift in the franchise's dynamic.
Thompson joins a Mavericks team fresh off an NBA Finals appearance and loaded with two future Hall of Famers in Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. Doncic and Irving should be able to supply Thompson with a never-ending supply of open threes on the perimeter, giving the Mavericks arguably the NBA's most dynamic offense.
The Golden State Warriors "want to help" outgoing free agent Klay Thompson by organizing a sign-and-trade deal with another team, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported.
"The Warriors want to help him in a sign-and-trade situation, perhaps to the teams who don't have the cap space for him, to be able to get a bigger contract," Wojnarowski said on ESPN's SportsCenter (1:45 mark.) "And if the Warriors can get back some assets in that, they'll be more than happy.
"They're going to be on the phones (Sunday), trying to help Klay Thompson do that."
Thompson is hitting free agency after negotiations with the Warriors reportedly stalled over the past two weeks. The 11-season Golden State veteran made $43.2 million last season while at times falling out of the rotation.
Thompson averaged 17.9 points per season while shooting 43.2 percent from the field and 38.7 from deep.
The Athletic's Shams Charania and Anthony Slater reported Saturday that the Los Angeles Lakers, LA Clippers and Dallas Mavericks are expected to pursue the veteran in free agency.
According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Mavericks could send Josh Green to the Warriors in a potential sign-and-trade for Thompson.
The Clippers are currently $105 million over the soft cap, making them one of the most cap-strapped teams in the league, per Spotrac.
The Lakers and Mavericks are also above the soft cap, potentially limiting what they could offer Thompson in free agency.
Thompson has connections with the Lakers, the team his father Mychael Thompson played for from 1987 to 1991.
NBA insider Marc Stein reported Sunday that his Lakers sources "said to regard Dallas as the team to beat."
"Despite the obvious pull that the Lakers have.... league sources continued to stress to The Stein Line that — as first reported here Friday — there will be strong mutual interest between Thompson and the Mavericks," Stein wrote.
The Athletic's Tim Kawakami agreed with the Stein that the Mavericks are a "strong candidate" for a sign-and-trade deal for Thompson.
Tim Kawakami @timkawakamiYes, I believe a Klay Thompson deal -- probably sign-and-trade -- elsewhere is likely to land quickly. My pal <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheSteinLine</a> has been reporting for a while that the Mavericks are a strong candidate. I agree. <a href="https://t.co/pmz5hOZQ78">https://t.co/pmz5hOZQ78</a>
Thompson's effectiveness from behind the arc decreased with the Warriors last season, and The Athletic's Anthony Slater reported last week that talks between team and player had "frozen" as the team prioritized other trade targets over re-signing the veteran, per Stein.
But Thompson's 11 seasons with the team still included four championship campaigns, and at his peak he was an integral part of the Warriors' backcourt alongside Stephen Curry. Even if there is no place for him in Golden State in 2024-25, the team may want to help a former key member of the roster— while recouping some assets in return— on Thompson's way to his next team.
The Golden State Warriors entered the offseason with goals of reinvigorating their NBA title hopes.
Instead, they face the likelihood that their two primary targets will go elsewhere.
The Athletic's Tim Kawakami reported the team had expectations of acquiring Paul George from the Los Angeles Clippers in a sign-and-trade deal that would have included a package of some kind, with Chris Paul, Jonathan Kuminga, Andrew Wiggins, and Moses Moody among the potential names, as well as a No. 1 draft pick.
Making matters worse is that future Hall of Famer Klay Thompson, who won four NBA titles with the organization, is a free agent for the first time in his career and expects to talk to the Mavericks, Lakers, Clippers, and 76ers this offseason, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Thompson saw reduced time in 2023-24, with the team opting to give Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski more opportunities. As a result, he scored 17.8 points per game, his first season under 20 since 2013-14.
Not the player he once was, he is still an excellent shooter and his defensive skill set is still one of his strongest attributes.
The organization did not see the value in re-signing him to a significant contract, though, hence the situation it finds itself in.
Thompson will likely look elsewhere to finish his career while the organization is without George, who was the top prize in the league this offseason, leaving the Warriors with dashed NBA title hopes.
Other players are available or will become so, that the team could target to help get them back into contention in a stacked Western Conference. Lauri Markkanen of the Utah Jazz is one, for example, but it remains to be seen if that organization would be willing to trade within the same conference.
Steph Curry is still one of the best players in the league and Draymond Green is still a superb defender, but the window is closing on the number of seasons the Warriors have left in terms of contending for an NBA title.
They need a third star, help defensively, and someone who can grind it out when things get aggressive in the paint. A selfless star.
Missing out on George, perhaps the most selfless legitimate star in the league, when they had gone through the process of putting together a solid trade package and knowing Thompson is unlikely to return, is a major blow for the team's new general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr.
How he responds to his first real adversity in the front office will likely determine the tone for the rest of the season.
And, ultimately, how realistic a shot the team has of making it back to the playoffs, let alone competing for the Larry O'Brien trophy.
