Monday, August 1st, marked the Trade Deadline for Major League Baseball. Every year, teams make transactions in the hopes of acquiring players that will help them in the next couple of seasons or in the upcoming playoffs. Each year, there is that one team that acquires an unbelievable pitcher or a consistent, clutch hitter that will certainly assist the team in making that final push into the playoffs. With this being said, there was no such trade this year and therefore, the deadline sucked. This is a day that fans look forward to, dreaming that the General Manager of their favorite team makes that one absurd trade in the hopes of making your team a playoff contender. The deadline fell completely short of all expectations as 4:00 PM rolled around on Monday and fans were still attached to their phones or computers waiting for their team to do the unexpected. As I see it, there are many reasons for this and I am going to break it down for you.
The main justification for this horrible day is that there are truly only a small handful of amazing players in Major League Baseball right now. I know many people are going to disagree with this, but it is true. Each team, with the exception of a few teams like the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Cubs, and Giants, really only have one or two truly gifted players. I mean, look at it, the Athletics have one really talented player, Sonny Gray, but they can't always depend on him. Another team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, have former All-Star Andrew McCutchen and rising star Starling Marte. Just glance at the All-Star team rosters. A lot of the teams only have a single player representing them on baseball's biggest stage. There are those exceptions, once again, but it really comes down to the fact that these teams drafted well and are fortunate to have such talent representing them on the field. I think this is the primary reason as to why teams weren't willing to trade this year.
Another reason I think this day was a failure was that these Major League teams did not want to trade these top players at the risk of losing fans. For example, if the Angels traded Mike Trout, they would lose thousands of fans because Trout is the face of the franchise. The team is not willing to risk such a trade because of this and the lack of talent the rest of the team has. Also, the length of each game
is preventing many people from attending. It has been proven that baseball has failed to keep the attention of many fans due to the three-hour long games with the countless breaks between switching pitchers and the instant replay options managers now have.
As a fan of baseball, I think that blockbuster trades are necessary to keep the attention of both young and old fans. They will not only help garner a larger audience, but help the teams as well. These trades can help teams win their division and maybe even the World Series. Major League Baseball should interact with the teams more around this deadline to try to make these unbelievable trades happen. If this is done, the deadline won't be a huge disappointment like it was this year.
