The Major League Baseball trade deadline is a month away and already teams are getting themselves in position to acquire a big talent that can help push their team to the postseason.
Often times the object of a team’s desire is a player who will be on the free agent market the following fall. Those trades are especially risky given all the factors that go into the deal. There are are examples of the rental deals working out (Carlos Beltran to the Astros), but the team must take a calculated risk.
Teams must believe that this one player or pitcher will be the difference between going home or the playoffs. There are five risk factors that can make the trades undesirable for both sides: