The weeks leading up to Major League Baseball’s trading deadline are always tense. Every team has to evaluate where they are in the standings, what the organization’s long-term outlook is and how much could be changed by acquiring a few veterans.
Depending on how the math shakes out, clubs decide if they are buying or selling — the New York Mets, for instance, are selling in a big way — at which point they begin reaching out to other teams to try to find a match. Along the way, players are left to ponder what moves their teams will make and whether they will soon be on the move.
Not knowing which city they will be living in the following week can be overwhelming, even for professional ballplayers. And things don’t necessarily get easier once the deadline passes, as they are immediately thrust into a pennant race and expected to justify the price that was doled out to acquire them.