As the offseason winds down, people tend to separate the teams they believe will win from the teams they believe will lose. Basically, the Boston Red Sox are on one side and the Kansas City Royals are on the other side, for example.
But then there are those teams who aren’t losers but aren’t quite winners either. Those are the teams who are close to becoming true contenders.
These teams are usually one or two key pieces (players) away from competing—like when the Milwaukee Brewers acquired both Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum.
This list features 10 possible trades that these teams could make to potentially make a run at the playoffs this year. These trades are mostly speculation, and it is extremely likely that none of them will actually happen. But they are trades that I feel—and hope some of you will feel—would make the teams I am going to discuss contenders.